“Transforming a place of sale into a place of experience and olfactory culture.”
Valentino Di Liello (translated from Italian)
Taking its name directly from a Roman street and address, Campomarzio70 is a specialist perfume retailer developed by the Di Liello family. The family business dates to 1926, but its present concept, centered on niche fragrances whose creation and retail differ from mass distribution, took shape in the early 2000s. Inheriting a long-established business did not mean keeping the same sales floor unchanged.
The key to understanding this shop lies less in the number of brands on its shelves than in whose perfumes it has introduced and the encounters through which it has delivered them. Tracing its relationships with independent creators, transitions between family generations, and gatherings around scent reveals one aspect of the work of selecting and communicating perfume in Italy.
Essential Information
- Name: Campomarzio70
- Place of origin: Rome, Italy
- Historical starting point: The family business dates to 1926. Valentino says the specialist shop on Via Campo Marzio opened in 2003, while the official history identifies 2004 as the birth of the shop and brand.
- Management: The Di Liello family. Gianni, Roberta, Valentino, Fabrizio, and Maria Titova are involved in the business.
- Main activities: Retail of fragrance, cosmetics, home fragrance, and design; brand distribution; and events devoted to olfactory culture.
- Official website: Campomarzio70
The Di Liello Family and the Origins of the Perfume Shop
From Barber Supplies to a Shop Facing the Pantheon
The family business began with a barber-supplies shop in 1920s Rome. The year 1926 in the official history marks the origins of that family enterprise. It does not mean that today’s niche perfume specialist existed in the same form from that year onward.
Pantheon 96 opened in 1996 on Piazza della Rotonda, opposite the Pantheon. After completing his studies, Valentino took responsibility for the family shop’s accounting. Brands such as Chanel, Dior, and Lancôme shared the sales floor with a small selection of niche fragrances.
The Specialist Shop of 2003 and the Brand’s Birth in 2004
The turning point came around 2002, when Valentino saw signs of growth in niche perfumery. The following year, supported by his parents, he opened a shop at Via Campo Marzio 70 devoted exclusively to niche brands. Rather than simply adding another version of the family shop, he changed the premise behind its selection.
His father Gianni’s outlook was more traditional, but he accepted his son’s vision and entrusted him with strategy. Support from Valentino’s wife Maria also played an important role in the transition. Both the official history and Valentino date the brand’s birth to 2004. Distinguishing this from his account of the 2003 opening clarifies three separate moments: the family business’s origins, the shift to a specialist shop, and the establishment of the name.
The Family Vero Kern Visited by Night Train
The relationship with Vero Kern, which began in 2007, illustrates the shop’s work in encountering new creators. Shortly after launching her own perfumes, Kern was contacted by Valentino.
“I immediately took the first train to Rome that night.”
Vero Kern (translated from Italian)
The Di Liello family welcomed her in Rome. Kern recognized their knowledge and ability to assess and sell artistic perfumes. By her 2012 account, their collaboration had expanded into distribution that brought her fragrances to the world.
For an independent perfumer, completing a good fragrance and getting it to the people who need it are separate challenges. Kern herself identified distribution as a difficulty alongside financing and production. Campomarzio70 was not only a selector on the sales floor, but also a partner creating routes to market beyond the maker’s own reach.
A Gathering Place on Via Vittoria
The Essential Gallery at Via Vittoria 52 in Rome extended these relationships into a space where people could gather. The official history dates its establishment to 2010, while an event celebrating its opening took place in March 2011.
An eyewitness account dated March 12, 2011, records the presence of Francis Kurkdjian, Mona di Orio, Andy Tauer, Vero Kern, and Clara Molloy of Memo, among others. The shop was intended not only to display perfume but also to host launches, talks, and gatherings around smell. The following morning, Maria Grazia Fornasier gave a lecture on perfume and personality.
Simply placing different brands’ bottles on the same shelf leaves a distance between creators and customers, and between the creators themselves. This event brought together the people who had actually made and conceived those perfumes. Like Nose in Paris, the shop becomes an entry point for hearing about a work’s background. Here, however, the family’s commercial relationships formed the foundation of the gathering place.
Beyond Rome and the Roles of Different Family Members
In 2012, Cortina d’Ampezzo became the first location outside Rome. The business expanded to a franchise in Ravenna and a shop-in-shop in Porto Cervo in 2013, then to Via Brera in Milan in December 2014. The Via Vittoria gallery provided a starting point, adapted to each setting.
In the family’s 2025 division of responsibilities, Gianni and Roberta were owners, Valentino founder and CEO, Fabrizio co-founder and head of retail, and Maria co-founder responsible for international business development. The length of the family history should be distinguished from the roles of the people who shaped the current business.
Communicating Creators’ Thinking Through Selection and Service
Explaining the Creative Work Behind a Brand Name
Fabrizio’s 2014 description of the shop’s customers is revealing. They were interested in new fragrances and asked questions to discover what lay behind them. The shop needed not only to explain scent profiles, but also to communicate the thinking of the person who created a perfume.
“Knowing who creates it and being able to convey their vision adds further fascination.”
Fabrizio Di Liello (translated from Italian)
That same year, his new recommendations included Ramon Monegal, Von Eusersdorff, and Zenology. Von Eusersdorff in particular was presented through compositions focused on materials such as mimosa, vetiver, and patchouli. This was an explanation of what to pay attention to when smelling a perfume, rather than merely learning its name.
He also said that choosing a gift should begin with the recipient’s personality. There is no need to reinterpret 2014 bestsellers as today’s popularity rankings. What emerges is that the shop placed discovering new brands and considering the right scent for the person in front of it on two sides of the same service.
Putting Perfume and Design in the Same Space
The current official shop offers not only perfumes to wear, but also home fragrance, cosmetics, and design from names such as Fornasetti and Ginori 1735. Starting from specialist perfume retail, it has broadened its scope to include life with fragrance.
A concrete example is the shop that opened on Milan’s Via Manzoni in 2024. On the ground floor, videos convey the worlds of the brands alongside suspended display cases, while a scented elevator carries visitors into the next space. The arrangement also communicates the background of the work visually.
“Our new Milan shop aims to move closer to the art-gallery concept already adopted at Rome’s Essential Gallery.”
Valentino Di Liello (translated from Italian)
The opening concept also included cocktails devised around the principal ingredient of a chosen perfume, and a space for relaxing among artworks. The idea was not to reproduce a perfume’s smell literally in a drink, but to approach its subject through taste and sight as well as smell. It offers another sensory context for impressions of ingredients and compositions that a list of perfume notes may not easily convey.
Making Their Own Shops the Subjects of Fragrance
The work of selecting and delivering perfume also led to an attempt to express the company’s own history in scent. Launched in 2021, The Essential Blend is a home-fragrance collection composed by perfumer Luca Maffei, with shop addresses incorporated into its names.
For example, n.70/A connects the shop facing the Pantheon with incense, n.52 evokes mandarin in the Via Vittoria courtyard, and n.9 uses a powdery expression recalling Cortina’s snow. Rather than merely listing cities, the collection takes the places where the shops stand as subjects for smell.
Presenting Campomarzio70 solely as a perfume manufacturer would obscure the background of these works. First come the shops and their relationships with cities, customers, and creators; then those relationships become fragrance. The collection’s meaning lies in that sequence.
Current Shops and Olfactory Experiences
The official shop directory checked in October 2026 lists Via Campo Marzio 70, Via Vittoria 52, Piazza della Rotonda 70/A, and Via Vittorio Veneto 136 in Rome. In Milan, it lists Via Alessandro Manzoni 44 and Via Brera 2/A, so the opening of a new shop should not be equated with the closure of an older one.
Other locations include Via della Condotta 65/R in Florence, Cortina, and Forte dei Marmi. Company-operated shops, franchises, and counters within other retailers have different formats, so visitors should check the official shop directory for their intended destination.
As a way of selecting perfume through conversation, the official offering combines a gift card with an olfactory consultation. At the Via Vittoria shop in Rome, a 45-minute appointment proposes perfumes based on the customer’s preferences, together with purchase credit and bar service. This is a paid, bookable package tied to a purchase.
The official event list also includes programs such as Summer Stories, centered on fragrances that evoke summer. Dates and contents vary by event. Even for perfume lovers who do not travel, the shop’s interest in moving beyond ingredient names toward creators’ perspectives, places, and relationships with other senses is engaging. Campomarzio70’s history shows how the judgment of those selecting perfumes can change the way people encounter them.
Timeline
| Year | Key Event |
|---|---|
| 1926 | The family business begins, with roots in the sale of barber supplies in Rome. |
| 1996 | Pantheon 96 opens opposite the Pantheon. |
| 2003 | According to Valentino’s own account, a niche perfume specialist opens at Via Campo Marzio 70. |
| 2004 | The official history and Valentino identify this as the birth year of the Campomarzio70 brand. |
| 2007 | The collaboration with Vero Kern begins. |
| 2010–2011 | The official history dates the Via Vittoria Essential Gallery to 2010. Opening celebrations take place in March 2011. |
| 2012 | The first shop outside Rome opens in Cortina d’Ampezzo. |
| 2013 | Expansion includes a Ravenna franchise and a Porto Cervo shop-in-shop. |
| December 2014 | A shop opens on Milan’s Via Brera. |
| 2021 | The Essential Blend launches, taking shops and cities as its subjects. |
| 2024 | The brand celebrates its 20th anniversary and opens the Via Manzoni shop in Milan. |
| 2025 | The official history records expansion to Porto Carlo Riva in Rapallo and to Treviso. |
References
- FamilyBiz — Sara Colonna’s interview with Valentino Di Liello on the family business, 2025
- Campomarzio70 — Official company history
- Robb Report Italia — Marco Torcasio’s report on the new Milan boutique, 2024
- Cultura e Culture — Doralda Petrillo’s interview with Vero Kern, 2012
- Bergamotto e Benzoino — Eyewitness account of the Rome opening event, March 12, 2011
- Beauty Scenario — Interview with Fabrizio Di Liello, 2014
- Campomarzio70 — Official online shop and product categories
- Sensi del Viaggio — Elefteria Morosini’s report on The Essential Blend, 2021
- Campomarzio70 — Official Essential Blend collection
- Campomarzio70 — Official shop directory
- Campomarzio70 — Official gift-card and olfactory-consultation service at Via Vittoria, Rome
- Campomarzio70 — Official event directory
