The Great Trip (XXXI): Travel to Smell — Perfume Is the New Guide

10 October 2026

This journey we propose requires no suitcase, no ETA, ESTA, or portable charger. It only asks that your ears stay open, something we don’t always do. You read correctly: we invite you to a grand olfactory journey that takes us to five continents. We can even do it with our eyes closed. How easy.

Scents have the power to lift us up and younger generations are discovering their expressive potential. The perfumery is in a sweet moment, almost literally, because Generation Z likes scents like this. In Spain, according to Stanpa, perfume sales grew by 9.5% in 2025 and the market surpasses 2.4 billion euros in sales (more than the video game market). And the sector is optimistic: we want to smell good and different. This adjective is important, because people seek fragrances with a name and a story behind them. Perfume is status, discovery, and identity. And, moreover, it is an irrational way of taking us to other places. The olfactory journey doesn’t travel through the brain, it hits straight at the heart.

To embark on our trip we need some luggage, and a leather bag will do. The perfumer Pierre-Constantin Guéros has designed Bagage à main for Laboratorio Olfattivo. It is a scent inspired by a caramel-colored calfskin travel bag that his father gave him when he turned 18. “Its design evokes the aristocratic bags of the Grand Tour,” Guéros says. It smells of leather, amber, and a traveling heritage.

En Pitti Fragranze se viaja con el olfato.

We already have the luggage; now we’ll seek destinations, I mean perfumes. Hellenist takes us to Greece, to its tradition and its myths. Its perfumes, crafted in Paris, invite us to relate to its gods. À l’ombre d’Artémis leads us to a doorless sanctuary where Artemis is not watching. The sacred aromas of the trees and the freshness of the fig envelop us. Before we know it, we have arrived in Greece.

Aoife Brennan

I write about culture, gastronomy, and lifestyle with a deep interest in the places, people, and traditions that shape how we live. I am drawn to stories that feel thoughtful, vivid, and rooted in real experience, whether they begin in a gallery, around a table, or in the rhythm of everyday life.