What Nobile 1942 is known for

Founded in 2005 in Genoa by Massimo Nobile and Stefania Giannino, building on a family perfumery opened by Massimo's grandfather in Rome in 1942. Fragrances including Pontevecchio, named for Florence's bridge, are hand-bottled, labeled and packaged.

Nobile 1942 was founded in 2005 by Massimo Nobile and Stefania Giannino, though the name reaches back further: Massimo's grandfather opened the family's first perfumery in Rome in 1942, run by his wife, with the family's involvement in perfumery traced back even earlier, to around 1930. The modern company operates out of Genoa rather than Rome or Florence, at a facility on Via Evandro Ferri. Its debut fragrance, Pontevecchio, launched in 2005 and takes its name and inspiration from Florence's Ponte Vecchio bridge, historically home to the city's goldsmiths — a place the founders describe as personally significant, distinct from where the company is actually based. Across the range, the company emphasizes small-batch, hand-finished production: each bottle is filled, labeled and packaged by hand rather than on an automated line, and the founders frame their work as 'emozioni liquide' — liquid emotions — with each scent tied to a specific historical or personal narrative rather than a seasonal marketing concept. The Premium collection, which includes the gladiator-themed fragrance Rudis, extends that same storytelling approach into scents built around historical figures and settings rather than abstract mood names.