I discovered Elisa and the Liquori delle Sirene from the social media, a "place" where you discover beautiful things if you know how to search for: her the story is about how she literally returned to their roots, she reinvented herselves for a life closer to her person.
Elisa is born in Vicenza like me, and like me she grew up in the country: but she stayed there until she was 18, then left Veneto for the University of Milan, returning home on weekends. In these returns home, he had time to investigate with his grandmother the world of herbs and their use both as food and as a cure, becoming her guardian from time to time in the preparation of infusions, in the research and cataloging of plants and in the preparation of liqueurs. The passion for nature and its fruits also led her to become a wine and oil sommelier before receiving a scholarship for the master's degree at the Sant'Anna di Pisa. Professionally, her career has developed towards marketing in multinational companies, also moving to various cities such as London, Bologna and Venice. But in her dreams, in reality, there was not that kind of career and the mind always flew to his plants and roots: until one night in which she started to make herbal infusions again, as he did with his grandmother. And so the ballet started between her desire to leave their work to give voice to the passion, but cannot yet, and meanwhile her heart and head were divided in half.
What allowed her to make the final decision and embark on this adventure was her transfer to Lake Garda for love of her husband and the arrival of her first child: Elisa told me that there is a bay on the lake, dear to all the Verona people, which is called Baia delle Sirene, and in that magical place, a small natural inlet that has the scent of another world, her world is born.
Liquors of the Sirens.
On Monte Baldo, which is located on the Veronese shore of the lake, there is a particular ecosystem and is considered Hortus Europae - Garden Europe - for its floristic richness, environments and species. She then deepens the herbal studies on the area and finally in 2015 the first bottle of Mermaid Bitter is born. This year, however, the Amaro was born: Canto Amaro.
Elisa has a happy heart for what she is doing and for having been able to use her grandmother's advice and teachings: that it was not easy and it is not easy yet, is undeniable, but there is something inside her that says she is doing the right thing and anyone who has tasted her liquor is certainly of the same opinion. I bought two bottles in a small shop in Vicenza, where the owner, with passion and love, told me about this product as an unmissable gem. I asked Elisa how she managed to move in a purely male world, in a sector, that of the distillery, very closed and "stable": she told me that at the beginning she listened to too much advices, then she learned not to listen to the opinion of nobody but her husband and a dear friend who once told her that "many men feel obliged to give you advices because you are a woman in a world of men, if you were a man they would be silent.", giving her a life lesson.
I also fell in love with her label, on which Elisa has placed so much attention and care: in liberty style like the buildings of the lake, the explosion of flowers leads to the botanicals that are inside the product (orange blossom, gentian and absinthe in addition to many others). I recommend it for you or as a gift at Christmas: I particularly appreciated this product because now that I have known Elisa I know what stands behind it: a girl, a story, a grandmother who knew how to convey a passion and so much courage.
