Posts Tagged ‘Italy’

Essential Oil distillery from Santa Maria Novella Florence circa 1700's

Eric and I visited the world famous herbalist shop of the Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica Di Santa Maria Novella in Florence earlier this year.

The Dominican monastery’s first medicinal herb garden was established in 1221 to provide the herbals required for the monks own use. In 1612 the monks first offered their wares to the public in the same spot where the Santa Maria Novella Herbalist shop is today.

Above is an engraving of the monastery’s  distillery where essential oils were extracted from their parent plants.  You can see the wood fire hearths lined up in a row below the distillation chambers where plant material and water were gently boiled and the oils distilled off into beautiful ceramic urns and jugs.

Moon Haven is on the move…to exhibit at Beauty Eurasia in Istanbul  and Lifestyle Australia in Marina Square, Singapore with a sabbatical in Florence, Italy in the middle

With only two weeks until Eric and I leave for our Moon Haven marathon tour, it is all go behind the scenes at our aromatherapy cottage.

You see first we are going over to visit Mustafa and Betul, our lovely distributors in Istanbul, Turkey.  (Aside: Does the song “Istanbul…Constantinople” spring into your mind every time you hear the name Istanbul… like it does in mine? ) We will be helping them exhibit at Beauty Eurasia as well as help them promote and educate their retailers about Moon Haven and our product range. We will be there nearly 2 weeks.

Then we move onto Italy where we will have a two week sabbatical with Eric’s brother Tony and his lovely lady Anne.

Tony teaches art history for Arizona State University in Florence every year for the Summer break (remember it is the northern hemisphere!).  Tony retires this year so this is our last chance to enjoy Florence with them.

There is nothing quite like visiting a gallery or museum in Florence with Tony and Anne, their knowledge is so extensive, informative and entertaining that I am constantly wanting to know more. Having Tony explain the differences between Michelangelo’s sculpture of  Apollo/ David  and Donatello’s David is absolutely fascinating.

Then we move on to Singapore for the Lifestyle Australia exhibition.  this will be held at Marian Square, a huuuge shopping complex  from 4 to 13 July.  Chris will be flying up from Perth to help man the exhibition as well.

So with just on 6 weeks away from the moon haven cottage we will be very glad to come home.

Phewww.