Gardens and Gardeners of Tuscany

February 25, 2011 |

Author Penny

Whilst the gardens that we will visit in Florence are beautifully designed, laid out and planted, a lot of their fascination comes from the stories of the lives of the people who created them.

In our forthcoming tour 1-7th May we will visit the gardens of many of the most colourful characters ever to find themselves exiled abroad.

Visit the famous gardens of Florence with garden historian Dr Katie Campbell

1-7 May

Provisional itinerary

Saturday 30th April - arrival in Florence – met at airport or station and taken to hotel or apartment

Sunday 1^st May -

9.00 meet at hotel Villa le Rondini – Filippo Fattori of Tuscany car tours to drive us to Montepuliciano for coffee and a look round the walled city before our visit to Val D’Orchia regions to see two early 20^th Century interpretations of the Humanist ideal
12.00 – La Foce – home of author Iris Origo – Images and Shadows, War in Val D’Orchia, The Merchant of Prato – who developed her garden with Cecil Pincent.
13.30 – lunch
15.30 Palazzo Picolomini – in Pienza, created by the humanist Pope Pius II in the middle of the fifteenth century

Monday 2^nd May –

Meet Hotel 9.30 to be driven to gardens in or around Fiesole – also worked on by Cecil Pinsent

10.00 Villa Medici – home of Sybil Cutting – mother of Iris Origo

11.00 Le Balze - home of philosopher Charles Strong 12.30 Vincigliata - medieval castle of Sir John Temple Leader – where we will also explore the castle and enjoy a wine, cheese and prosciutto tasting.

Lunch at hotel ( if still needed!) 15.00– City Tour of Florence – on foot – with Penny Howard

Tuesday 3^rd May –

9.30 La Pietra – last refuge of the aesthete – Arthur and Harold Acton

11.0 I Tatti -one of the first Anglo American gardens – home of Bernard and Mary Berenson

13.00 Lunch Casa del Prosciutto –north of Fiesole

14.30 Pratolino the exotic Mannerist ‘garden of marvels’, created by Grand Duke Francesco de Medici in the late sixteenth century.

16.30 Villa Capponi – a baroque jewel lived in by American art Historian Charles Perkins and Henry Clifford –curator of paintings at the Philadelphia museum

21.30 – Optional Mozart Opera Marriage of Figaro – performed at St Mark’s English Church, in a Renaissance Palace once thought to have been owned by Machiavelli in Via Maggio Florence

Wednesday 4^th May

10.0 The Boboli gardens – developed by Niccolo Tribolo for the very wealthy Eleonora de Toledo, who bought the Pitti Palace from financially overstretched Luca Pitti when he ran out of money, and the Palazzo Vecchio became too small and constrictive for her and her growing family

11.0 Bardini Gardens

12.0 and the famous herb garden at Palazzo Capponi and/or Palazzo Corsini?

Free time after lunch in Florence - visit to the Uffizi and/or Palazzo Vecchio

6 pm : Katie Campbell gives a talk at the British Institute Library on the Gardens of Florence - followed by a glass of wine and opportunity to talk to other gardening enthusiasts living in Florence

Thursday 5th May

10.00 Villa Gamberaia – home of reclusive Rumanian Princess Giovanna Ghyka and her inseparable companion, Miss Blood 12.00 lunch at hotel in Torre di Bellosguardo – home of Lady Paget

15.00 Optional cookery class with personal chef - Lisa Banchieri www.lisabanchieri.it

Friday 6th May

Towards Siena ,

Vicobello – important C16 Villa and garden layout by Baldassare Peruzzi – architect, painter and theatrical designer credited with the invention of moving scenery
L’Apparita – a contemporary sculpture garden near Cetinale
Castello di Celsa