Heritage is core to Santa Maria Novella, the over 800-year-old Italian perfumery and apothecary founded by Dominican friars in Florence, Italy.

So are gardens. In 1221, the Church of Santa Maria Novella began growing herbs and flowers on the monastic grounds. These plants were then used to create elixirs, rose water, and other scented preparations that would become the basis of Santa Maria Novella's product offering.

The Santa Maria Novella gardens still exist today — and, fittingly, they serve as the inspiration for the brand's most recent fragrance collection, I Giardini Medicei. Launched in 2022, each of the perfumes spotlights a different flower — including iris, magnolia and jasmine — found on the famed Florentine plot.

On September 9, Santa Maria Novella launches Acqua, the latest scent to join the I Giardini Medicei family. But instead of drawing from fragrant blooms, this perfume is an ode to the element that keeps Santa Maria Novella's gardens alive: water.

Santa Maria Novella

Santa Maria Novella CEO Giovanna Paoloni, who joined the company in January, explains that water elements like fountains and pools have been a key feature of the grounds since the brand's inception.

For Paoloni, Acqua, the eau the parfum, captures a "serene atmosphere of wonder and well-being." Soft yet refreshing notes of pear, freesia, and lotus flower are set against a musky base, creating a sense of calm that mirrors the soothing nature of a bubbling brook or fountain.

Like all of the perfumes in the I Giardini Medicei collection, Acqua is exquisitely packaged. In a blue glass bottle with a gold cap, the fragrance comes nestled in a keepsake box that mimics the look of an antique, hardbound book.

Talk about a tall drink of water.