Buongiorno

The Verdict

Buongiorno is the kind of fragrance that makes you understand why people fall in love with Acqua di Parma in the first place. Released in 2025, it captures something genuinely Italian — not the postcard clichés of sun-baked lemons and ocean breezes, but the more specific pleasure of stepping into an herb garden on a warm morning. This is Rosemary and Basil in the company of Lemon and Petitgrain, all wrapped in a mint-green freshness that is vivid without being aggressive.

What distinguishes Buongiorno from most of Acqua di Parma's lineup is that it does not lead with citrus. The house has made dozens of lemon-forward colognes. This one makes you work through an aromatic herb-and-mint opening before the citrus becomes apparent — and the result is something that feels more substantive and less disposable than your average summer refresher.

The fragrance community has embraced it warmly, with roughly 64% expressing outright love for the composition. That number sits unusually high for a fresh aromatic, a category that often divides opinion along generational lines.

What It Smells Like

The first spray lands somewhere between a professional kitchen and a Roman terrace. Basil and Rosemary come through with genuine naturalism — these are not synthetic herb accords but proper botanical impressions. Spearmint adds a cool, icy edge without tipping into toothpaste territory. Lemon and Petitgrain provide the citrus scaffolding, though here they function as brightness rather than the main event.

As the opening settles, Lavender emerges as the fragrance's quiet anchor. It is a soft lavender, not the strident variety found in traditional fougères, more like dried bundles in a linen closet than fresh-cut flowers. This transition from the sharp herbal opening to the softer floral heart is where Buongiorno earns its sophistication points.

The base is minimal — Musk, Cedar, and Amber — functioning as a clean, warm platform rather than making any bold statement of their own. The fragrance does not transform dramatically in the dry-down; it simply narrows, becoming quieter and more skin-close as the hours pass.

Comparisons to Xerjoff's Torino 21 are common and not entirely wrong. Both share a mint-citrus-herb structure. Buongiorno is softer and less synthetic, more elegant and less assertive. Where Torino 21 has a mojito brightness, Buongiorno feels like crushed herbs in a mortar — greener, more grounded, less flashy.

When to Wear It

This is unambiguously a warm-weather daytime fragrance. Its herbal, minty character aligns perfectly with spring and summer, and the community votes heavily toward daytime wear (roughly 28% day versus 5% night). It suits office environments well — the projection stays polite and nobody is going to complain about smelling fresh herbs in a meeting room.

It would struggle in cold weather, where the minty-green character can read as thin and distant. It is also not a fragrance built for black-tie occasions or evening events where you want depth and presence. This is Buongiorno in both name and purpose: a morning fragrance, a daytime fragrance, a fragrance for moving through the world rather than commanding a room.

Longevity & Projection

This is where Buongiorno genuinely surprises. Most Acqua di Parma releases are cologne concentrations that fade within two or three hours. Buongiorno, formulated as an Eau de Parfum, performs considerably better. Community reports range from four hours on the low end to eight or nine hours on clothes and skin for those with chemistry that amplifies it. A realistic expectation for most wearers is five to seven hours with moderate projection for the first two hours, then a pleasant skin scent for the remainder.

Projection is well-mannered but present. You will notice it in the first hour, and people nearby will too, but it never becomes the kind of fragrance that announces itself across a room. For a house with a reputation for subtle, self-contained scents, this is notably better performance than the Colonia line or the classic EdT releases.

The Community Says

The reception has been strong, particularly among those who own multiple Acqua di Parma fragrances and find Buongiorno to be the standout performer of the modern lineup. One reviewer with around ten ADP fragrances noted it offered the best longevity and projection of the bunch. Several testers found a colleague or partner still detecting the scent six or seven hours after initial application.

The most common criticism is that the basil-rosemary opening can read as "kitchen-y" — which is accurate, and is either the most appealing or least appealing thing about it depending on your perspective. Those who love culinary herbs in their fragrances find this genuinely exciting; those who want their cologne to smell like cologne and nothing else should probably reach for something else from the lineup.

The comparison to Torino 21 comes up repeatedly, and most reviewers conclude that Buongiorno occupies a slightly lower price point with slightly more naturalistic materials, making it a sensible entry point for anyone who finds Xerjoff's pricing difficult to justify.

Who Should Buy This

Buongiorno is for the person who has always wanted a fresh fragrance that feels substantive. If you find aquatic colognes shallow, citrus flankers forgettable, and sport scents juvenile, this is your fresh alternative. It rewards people who appreciate genuine herbal character — rosemary, basil, mint — executed with quality materials at a designer price point.

It would be the ideal blind buy for anyone who already enjoys Acqua di Parma Colonia and wants something that lasts longer and smells more dimensional. Fans of Hermes Eau d'Orange Verte or Atelier Cologne's aromatic releases would likely find a lot to appreciate.

Those who want their fragrance to project boldly across a room, last through the night, or carry a recognizable signature scent impression should look elsewhere. This is a fragrance for people who want to smell quietly good all day.

The Bottom Line

Acqua di Parma made a smart fragrance with Buongiorno. It takes the house's characteristic Italian freshness and adds enough depth — through genuine herbal complexity and an EDP concentration — to make it feel worth the investment. The community agrees: this is the best-performing modern release from a house that has historically struggled with performance.

It is not the most original fragrance of 2025. The mint-citrus-herb structure is not uncharted territory. But within that territory, Buongiorno executes with the kind of care and naturalistic quality that justifies the Acqua di Parma name. Worth buying if the note profile speaks to you — and worth sampling even if it does not.