In Love With A Soap and A Story

I discovered this soap about two weeks ago, and it may well be the most beautiful thing I've ever smelled.  The fragrance reminds me so much of lavender ice cream that every time I'm in the shower, I'm tempted to have a bite of it.  If it wasn't so expensive, I'd start tucking bars of it around my linens and carrying them around in my handbag. 

It's the Sapone Aritea Alla Lavanda -- lavender soap -- from Santa Maria Novella, the 400-year-old Florentine apothecary run by nuns that started out making cologne water for Catherine de' Medici.  Check out the shop in Florence.

Don't you want to go there so bad?  I'm dying to.  In the US, you can order their products through Lafco New York.

Photos: Lafco NY, Oficina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, Garance Dore