Figs ripe for the pickingOn Saturday we visited the private home of the Benedettis, situated in Areceti , just outside Florence , which has one of the loveliest gardens that I have seen, particularly extraordinary when it is  so close to the City.

We were shown round with great pride by the gardener Fernando – who now takes responsibility for maintaining a garden once worked by at least nine men.

Fernando not only works in the flower gardens but is also responsible for the fruit and so, for the first time in my life, I ate a fig fresh picked from the tree – as he very generously selected a ripe fig for each of my guests – an unexpected seasonal treat for his visitors.

Katie Campbell, who is a professor in social garden history explained some of the story of the Villa and the development of the gardens. Amongst the illustrious visitors have been Lady Ottoline Morrell, Henry James, Edith Wharton and Elizabeth, the Queen Mother -regularly visiting her own mother, Lady Strathmore – once with her daughter Elizabeth, who, when aged nine, also visited her grandmother at Villa Capponi.

The gardens of Villa Capponi have a lot of diverse “rooms” – beginning with the bowling green lawn in front of one of two “tea terraces” shown in the picture at the top of the page.  This is where the owners can offer a choice of where to take their mid-afternoon tea to get the best view across the city – dependent on heat and light.

Then we go down into the Secret Garden with it’s beautiful volute walls and elegant flower-beds within the low cut box parterres.

The second room also contains parterres and has a beautiful view over Florence – proclaimed the most beautiful view over Florence he had ever seen by none less than Harold Acton – owner of another wonderful Tuscan villa – La Pietra.

The Rose Garden also has a fountain – from which I managed to catch a rainbow – but “Alas!” I found no crock of gold.

The final room we visited was the Lemon Garden – another surprise as it is masked off from the bowling green lawn and guarded by these elegant gryphons.

A great start to our day visiting gardens close to the City of Florence!