The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Parco Palladiano II: Cipresso arrived in 2016, composed by perfumer Alexis Dadier. The fragrance belongs to Bottega Veneta's Parco Palladiano collection, a line of scents the brand built around Italian landscape imagery and the specific plants, trees, and atmospheres associated with it. Cipresso focuses on a single dominant note: cypress. But rather than lean into the heavier, incense-driven profile that cypress can carry in older perfumery, Dadier treats it as a living material. Cypress leaf, rather than cypress wood, forms the structural spine. The result reads greener, sharper, and more immediate than what you might expect from the name alone. Salt appears as a co-equal top note alongside the cypress, and the combination gives the composition its distinctive character.
The choice to anchor the entire structure on cypress leaf rather than cypress wood is what separates this from heavier, more resinous compositions. Cypress leaf carries a sharper, more volatile character than the smoked resin typically associated with the note. Salt functions as a co-equal top note rather than a secondary effect, which is the other unusual decision in the construction. Most fragrances treat marine accords as a way to suggest distance or vastness.
The evolution
The opening is the loudest this fragrance ever gets, and even then it never raises its voice. Cypress and pink pepper arrive in tandem, with the salt lifting the green into something almost saline. You catch the juniper underneath, a gin-clean sharpness that keeps everything from going too herbal or soft. As the fragrance dries down, the green softens but never disappears. The pepper recedes slowly, leaving the cypress to settle into something warmer and more resinous, though the salt persists quietly into the base. Eventually what remains is a dry, bark-like warmth with a faint briny edge, the kind of scent that clings to a sweater collar or shows up again on a scarf the next morning. The sillage stays close to the skin throughout. On fabric, the drydown can last for an extended period, leaving a woody trace that remains identifiable without dominating.
Cultural impact
Cipresso sits within a small tradition of green-spicy compositions, a category that includes fragrances like Diptyque's Philosykos and Chanel's Sycomore. Both are well-known references in this space, and Cipresso shares their commitment to green and woody materials as the foundation of the composition. What Cipresso brings to the category is its particular treatment of salt. Rather than pairing greenery with earth or with fig and fruit, it introduces a marine element that sharpens the green rather than softening it.
