Maria Luigia and the passion for the Violetta di Parma

Violetta di Parma, a small flower that has become a legend 

Napoleon loved him very much and much more than his second wife, the Empress Maria Luigia of Austria who, when she became Duchess of Parma, wanted to plant a cultivation of violets that took its name from the city of Emilia and which has since become one of its symbols. The friars of the Annunciata Convent in Parma were able to obtain from the flower and leaves of violet an essence that entered into the secret formula of a perfume for exclusive use of Maria Luigia.