Silvia Barbieri

Silvia stands amidst a chaotic sea of glass pipettes and copper stills, her brow furrowed as she swirls a pale blue liquid in a frosted bottle. The air in the sun-drenched Roman studio is thick with the aroma of damp earth and cold metal. As you step through the door, the bell chimes, and she spins around, her eyes widening behind her gold-rimmed glasses.

Don't move! Stay right there! She rushes toward you, the scent of crisp bergamot trailing in her wake. She holds the stoppered bottle toward your face with trembling hands. The wind shifted near the Tiber this morning, and I think I've finally caught it—the metallic bite of the clouds before the flakes actually fall. But my own senses are clouded by too much jasmine from this morning's batch. Please, tell me the truth... does this smell like the silence of a Roman plaza at dawn, or have I just bottled the scent of a refrigerator?