Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella in Florence is one of the oldest pharmacies in the world, founded by the Dominican friars in 1221 and open to the public since 1612. Today it is a historical shop and a museum, a “100% made in Florence” must-see renowned all over the world.

As President Eugenio Alphandery says, “We are a highly innovative artisan company” with seventy single-brand stores around the world, 110 employees, which become a thousand with its satellite activities.

The latest news is the opening of the first Wellness Centre, under S.M.Novella brand, at the Terme (thermal baths) di San Carlo in Massa, inside the Apuan Alps Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here a spring feeds free water, the Acqua San Carlo Fonte Aurelia, an oligomineral, microbiologically pure water, well known since the most ancient civilizations; “a water that loves tissues” because of its effective detoxifying action on the skin. Fonte Aurelia is a source of cold water that springs between twelve and thirteen degrees and minerals enrich it along its flow, between the hollows of the Apuan Alps.

Traditionally, San Carlo water is recommended to reduce kidney stones, thanks to its low fixed residue, and for metabolic diseases and hypertension, thanks to the low sodium content.

The structure was established in 1936, but the properties of this thermal spring were known since ancient Rome, as at that time this water was considered purifying and draining.

San Carlo Borromeo from Milan would have benefited, as early as the ‘500, of these waters to treat a kidney dysfunction. It is believed that his passage, also celebrated by Alessandro Manzoni in The Betrothed (in Italian: I Promessi Sposi), through the figure of his nephew Federigo Borromeo, convinced the population to attribute the current name to the area.

The hamlet, located 300 meters above sea level, has a unique microclimate, protected by the Apuan Alps and softened by the currents from the coast.

The Apuan Ligurians lived with a profound magical sense of life, and the Apuan Alps were at the centre of this sacredness. Mountains that gave a sense of protection and still needed men to safeguard them, and it was precisely what Giant Aronte did.

Legend has it that the gods tasked Aronte to protect these mountains from enemy attacks.

You can read the intense affection for this place in his eyes, while Eugenio Alphandery tells me, “I was a child when my grandfather used to take me by bike to San Carlo; we used to eat small focaccia and drink water from a fountain. I have never found that taste in any water around the world. It is true, it is not like bottling perfumes, but I like this challenge. People work very well here, and I’m sure we will make this company great”.

Eugenio Alphandery adds, “I decided to invest in the Apuan territory, reopen a factory that had been closed for years, and renovate a thermal complex with the San Carlo water bottling plant, unique in the world.

In the two years of work, I wanted to renew the 20000 square meters of the park, 2900 of which comprised of a building, a bottling factory, a wellness centre and a restaurant.

We estimate to produce 45000 bottles of water a day – it is an ambitious estimate – in the standard 25cl and 75cl size, still and sparkling, in glass bottles, because we want to avoid the production of microplastics and the ensuing environmental pollution. We have revamped the look for the San Carlo label, which however retains the logo of the soldier drinking from a bowl.

The name San Carlo will be linked to the Officina di S.M.Novella brand name, and from this union, a new product will be created, a drink flavoured with the fresh taste of costmary. This herb inspired Fra ’Angiolo Marchissi, a Dominican, who, in 1614, created the Acqua Antisterica (anti-hysteria water), these days known as Acqua di S.M.Novella, the same costmary also used for the preparation of tablets”.

Today, as in the past, costmary grows in the Officinal Herb Garden of S.M.Novella, facing the Villa Medicea La Petraia, in Florence, a 15,000 square meter paradise, in the tradition of the “Hortus Conclusus“, and is harvested when it best expresses its properties, and consequently distilled in the laboratories of the Officina.

In addition to water treatments, guests at San Carlo Spa will enjoy treatments at the Wellness Centre within the complex, because our aim is to offer a service that mixes care inside a perfect environment, so to restore ones’ strengths, even though nourishment.

In fact, the adjoining restaurant will benefit from the fruit of the surrounding vegetable gardens, created inside the San Carlo Park, vegetable gardens “nourished” with the same thermal water, where the production of vegetables will be carried out in a bioactive way, as the cultivation of medicinal herbs, including among others lavender, rosemary, lemon balm, and thyme.

Eugenio Alphandery ends my interview saying: “I have grown up drinking San Carlo water, since I always spend my summer holidays in Montignoso, near the Baths, and from there I can reach the village with my bike. I have always been in love with this beautiful place, and with this project, I am returning with joy to an ancient love”.

A man who loves immensely nature and its forces, the sea, the sailboat; who loves the energy that forms and welcomes the spiritual impulse. Who loves beauty, tastes, colours, textures, in short, sensory experiences, but who is correspondingly a pragmatic, concrete and tireless person.

“Working for others, especially for the younger future generations, creating a better world for them, teaching people to protect the environment should be the basis of our action, all the more so today,” he tells me before waving goodbye.

Only he could revive such dream and shape it into a new reality.

Photo made by carmeli / bedarumica.org