In the splendid Italian Renaissance, the villas outside the city were places of delight, elegant villas where one could fully and carefreely enjoy things and their beauty, their flavor, their abundance and generosity. People went there to relax and have fun, to be truly happy and over the centuries this tradition has never stopped. Leaving the duties and rules of everyday life behind, a new world opened up with the flowers of the garden, the scents of banquets, a joyful, cheerful, beautiful place... precisely, delicious. Here guests were welcome and the beauty of these intimate and familiar places opened hearts to happiness. There everything was perfume: from that of the plants, dahlias, lilies of the valley, violets, laurel, to the scent of fruit: apricot and peach, grapes and, above all, the scent of the large flowering trees, the magnolias with their shiny and regal leaves. These perfumes entered the house through the large open windows, hovering around the children who played at hiding behind the large canopy bed. In the kitchen on the ground floor, the pots and pans were rumbling their recipes while from the tables set for breakfast the enchanting smells of cakes and biscuits reached the children, making them run to their rooms to get ready to be the first in the dining room of the large frescoed house. I was there too. I spent the happiest moments of my childhood in the Art Nouveau villa in Budrio, built by my great-great-grandparents near our Renaissance tower, our place of delight. The house is not just a building but the people who live in it, their stories, their joys, their dreams and their traditions. The house goes hand in hand with delight: delight makes a house wonderful, it is a harmony of details, of refinement, to live wrapped in beauty, in perfume, in taste, it is knowing how to live. I remember the hand-embroidered hemp sheets, which hung out in the sun smelled of lavender, waiting to be ironed and wrapped with pink and ecru satin ribbons, then stored with so much love in the closets. Grandma Dina created her recipes of delight while she supervised the work in the kitchen and the maids worked, chatting and giggling together. The delights of the freshest vegetables from the garden, the scent of the fruits from the lemon house and that magnolia, which I love and loves me, the center of my games as a child. Today they are my most precious memories, together with the sweet scent of the lime trees and the Mediterranean scent of the rosemary that lived between sage and oregano, the basil and the wise words of my grandmother. In that house live our deepest traditions, the Christmas trees with the family gathered together, the songs, the joy, the scent of the orange peels and the pine branches burning in the cast iron stove. The holiday foods so rare and precious, the story of the Befana who in the heart of winter brought gifts to us, the little ones. Grandma Dina called her and we remained silent, curious, sure that we would see her. She focused her attention on a noise, near us, high up on the roof. She had arrived. We ran to the attic followed by Grandma, with the carefree joy of children. We had been good all year and she brought us gifts! Back on the ground floor we find her footprints in the ashes ... Nona Dina smiled happily, her magic accomplished, and we ate the fragrant sweets that the Befana had brought, in reality the goodness of the grandmother. That house had its traditions, passed down from father to son, from mother to daughter, it had its own knowledge and its own deep taste for the beautiful and the good, for the essence and for the delight of life. This precious legacy has now come to me and it is what I put into everything I do. I want to share it with you. I was taught the art of receiving and sharing and the perfumes that I mix are the fruit of my recipes, the perfumes that have characterized my life, the perfumes of nature that welcomed me in that house. The taste of my gastronomic fragrances are the perfumes of my land, of the places I have visited, that I love and that I keep in my heart. I want to share with you the delight, in all its wonderful facets.