films set in Italy

A day in gardens in and around Fiesole

14.5.12

 

Starting from Piazza del Carmine this morning we were a group of ladies celebrating the reappearance of the sunshine and looking forward to a day celebrating the Tuscan sun in some of the best loved gardens around Florence.

The Villa Medici

Villa de Medici - Fiesole

Villa de Medici - Fiesole

We began with the Villa Medici - first purpose build Humanist Villa designed by Michelangelo Mizzollotto on behalf of Cosimo di Medici - the big Daddy of Florence, who was making a lot money in Florins and foreign trade and salving his conscience as a usurer by investing a lot of money in religious art works.

Poor Cosimo had a lot of doubts about his trade and used to spend a long periods trying to work out the meaning of life in St Jerome’s retreat based in the hills of Fiesole.  The retreat was used recently in the film of Michael Ondaatje’s book the English Patient.

St Jerome 's hut above the Villa Medici

St Jerome 's hut above the Villa Medici

The views below of the city of Florence are beyond belief spectacular so Cosimo decided to buy the plot of land below his retreat in order to spend more of his “free” time in the perfect villa with it’s camera con vista (room with a view) over the City he already, more or less, owned.

Annunciation

The Villa is featured in many renaissance paintings including The Annunciation by Biagio di Antonio, shown above.

The current garden layout was developed for Anglo-Irish Expatriate mother of Iris Origo – Sybil Cutting by English Architect and garden designer Cecil Pinsent

Villa Medici may 2012

Villa Medici may 2012

Overall the layout is probably much as designed by Pinsent although according to Katie he would probably have strongly disapproved of the pots of red Azaleas disturbing his preferred palettes of subtle blues, creams and whites!

Le Balze

Our second stop was a short walk away from the Medici Villa to the integrated Villa and Garden project called Le Balze that Cecil Pinsent developed for American Philosopher Charles Strong (28 November 1862 – 23 January 1940) when he moved to Florence in 1906 with his daughter after his wife, Elizabeth Rockerfella died.

Also built into the hillside it is a miracle to find quite so much garden and house design developed in quite such a small strip of land!

View from Le Balze

View from Le Balze

And like all the Villa’s in Fiesole – it has a view to die for!

View from Le Balze

View from Le Balze

After Le Balze we went to the mock medieval rebuilt castle of Vincigliata for a wine and local produce tasting – and, of course, a visit to their gardens – but it was a little windy up there in the hills yesterday – fortunately our welcome from Emanuele Grezzi was as warm as ever.

 Castello Di Vincigliata

Finally we visites  Il Palmerino – the home of writer Violet Paget – whose nom de plume was the more masculine Vernon Lee. We had a fascinating visit round the three family homes and gardens of the family who inherited the house completed by a refreshing glass of home made wine!

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Katie Campbell talk at BM Bookshop 12 May 2012

2.5.12

Preparing for Tuscan  Garden Tour – 12-18 May 2012 

View from La Foce

View from La Foce

Katie tells me that when she does Garden Tours for other Travel Businesses she usually does fewer gardens and less activities – so I hope that we don’t rush any one with the very busy schedule that I have planned for these tours – essentially four gardens a day, with one of them also showing us the inside of a historic villa and providing us with a taste of their own wine  - that seems to me a worthwhile use of a day?

John Werich, new owner of the BM Bookshop has offered to host our opening talk at 16.00 on Saturday 12th May – Katie is going to give a presentation linking the premiss of her book Paradise of Exiles – Anglo-American gardens of Florence to the gardens we have already visited and also to the excellent Americans in Florence exhibition currently on show at the Strozzi Palace.

We look forward to meeting both Florentines and “Exiles” in Paradise at the newly refurbished bookshop and hope to have some late joiners on the forthcoming tours.

La Foce

La Foce

Outline of Tuscan Garden tours for 12-18th May 2012 

Saturday 12 May - 16.00Katie will give a presentation, Q&A and refreshments at the newly and beautifully refurbished BM Bookshop on Borgo Ognissanti.

Monday 14 May

private tour to gardens in and around Fiesole 

10.00 Sybil Cutting’s Villa Medici with garden redeveloped by English landscape gardener and architect Cecil Pinsent

11.00  Le Balze - home of American Philosopher Charles Strong

12.30 Vincigliata - visit to castle and gardens + wine and cheese tasting at this extraordinary medieval castle rebuilt by English peer - Sir John Temple Leader. NB This castle is not generally open to the public but used for weddings and conferences so we are very privileged as a small group to be allowed to visit.

Lions at Vincigliata

Lions at Vincigliata

16.30 Il Palmerino - a glimpse of the home and garden of prolific author Vernon Lee - and maybe a cup of tea while Katie introduces this interesting character!

Cost per head  - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens

 =€99 

Castle + wine tour + wine and degustation lunch at Vincigliata = €30

Cost for day €129 

Tuesday 15 May

09.30 Villa Schifanoia - in San Domenico – one of the many reputed sites of Boccaccio’s Decameron

11.00 La Pietra - a garden stuffed with statues at the home of the Actons

13.00 Lunch near Fiesole - la Casa del Prosciutto 

14.00 - Villa Gamberaia - retreat of Romanian Princess Gyka and English Miss Blood

a bathing pool for Princess Gyka

a bathing pool for Princess Gyka


 

16.30 Villa Maiano - for wine tasting and antipasti - this is another villa redeveloped by Sir John Temple Leader – now used for period films such as A Room with a View and Tea with Mussolini.

17.30 -if we are in time we hope to drop in for a quick visit to the Iris Gardens of Florence – only open in May with the beautiful view of the City under the setting sun.

Cost per head  - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens

 =€99 

Visit to Villa Maiano + wine tasting and antipasti €15 

Cost for day €114 

Wednesday 16 May 

11.30 Palazzo Picolomini  - in Pienza – home of the humanist Pope Pius 11

1.00 lunch in San Quirico d’Orcia – plus a visit to Horta Leonini another small public garden in the village

3.00 La Foce - home of  author Iris Origo

Last  year's group at La Foce

Last year's group at La Foce

drive to Montipulicano - trying to follow the route taken by Iris and family when they had to move their school and hospital from La Foce during the Allied attack – we will stop for a glass of wine there before returning to Florence

Cost per head  - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens

 =€109 

lunch and wine at cost but we have a fixed price menu c€20  

Thursday 17 May 

a walking tour of gardens in Central Florence 

10.00 Boboli GardensGrand Duke Cosimo 1 and Eleanor de Toledo’s garden behind the Pitti Palace provided entertainment for their growing family and inspiration for Marie de Medici in Paris 

11.30 Bardini gardens - Stefano Bardini - another great collector who sold to the Anglo-American expats – before we  visit the gardens we will also visit the other art Exhibition of paintings of Florentine gardens and other works from Grand Tourists and Macchiaioli done in late 19th – early 20th centuries.

Te a villa bardini

12.30 Tuscan lunch in San Niccolo area

14.30 Giardino Corsini 

16.00 possibly  Giardini dei Torrigiani, 

17.00 Optional taxi up to Bellosguardo for a glass of wine at sunset in the gardens of Torre di Bellosguardo - once home of the formidable Lady Paget

Cost professional guide + entrance to Boboli and Bardini gardens and exhibition of  paintings at the Bardini €60 

Friday 18 May 

a day trip to Lucca 

11.00 Villa Reale aka Villa Marlia - home of Napoleon’s sister when she was Duchess of Tuscany

12.30 Villa Torrigiani, family of the guy who broke Michaelangelo’s nose – at Camigliano

13.30 lunch in Lucca at Rusticanella 2 - as recommended by Todo 

14.30 Palazzo Pfanner a setting for a the Jane Campion film A Portrait of a LadyFountain and sunlight enlivens a four season at Palazzo Pfanner

 16.00 - Gardini Garzoni in Collodi 

17.30 return to Florence - arrival about 18.45

Cost per head  - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens

 =€109 

lunch and wine at cost 

NB The Cost  fluctuates daily to cover costs for private travel in air-conditioned mini-van  and do have garden historian, playwright and author Dr Katie Campbell as our private tour guide.

Paradise of Exiles: The Anglo-American Gardens of Florence

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Todo in Tuscany – a heartwarming story that I am sure will be a best seller

Todo in Tuscany – by the way this photo was taken at La Foce 

How could any true Brit resist? – A beautiful Tuscan villa with a friendly dog thrown in for free! Blow the beauty of the villa – the right dogs always find their rightful people don’t they?

Todo and Lawrence and Louise seem like a match made in heaven – escaping the inescapable noise and dirt of life in London they are living their Tuscan dream near Lucca with this adorable companion who refused to give up his home when his owners died – and like Hachiko in the film that Richard Gere made in 2009, Todo stayed at his post waiting for them to come back.

Todo now has his own Facebook page , Twitter feed and within the next few weeks his own book will be published by Hodder – with a good press launch – which surely must mean a good dinner for him whilst the people quaff their Chianti?

The book is published by Hodder and Stoughton on 7th June and the launch party on 24th

Congratulations to Louise and Lawrence on their new home, their new activity and most of all their new clever pet – and best wishes for great success with their book.

ps can’t wait to see the film too!!?

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Tuscan Garden Tour with wine tasting – led by garden historian Dr Katie Campbell14-18 May 2012

Many Tuscan gardens in and around Florence are a mixture of  Italian landscape and English formality – we are mixing Italian design and Italian wine for our tours!

These tours are led by a garden expert and driven by a professional and licensed tour driver.

In the late 19th Century, after the Unification of Italy and Florence’s brief period as Capital of Italy, property prices in Tuscany plummeted and allowed Anglo-American expatriates to purchase huge villas at a ridiculously low cost. The advantage to today’s tourist is that these expatriates in exile used their money to re-establish these formal gardens to their previous glory and have left their heritage for us to visit.

Tuscan villas were often surrounded by farms and vineyards with beautiful gardens at the foot of the villa. Tuscans, with their artistic sense and attachments to their surroundings, create gardens that fit into their landscapes and use limited colour that doesn’t perish under the Tuscan sun.

Some details below on our proposed garden visits for May – but they are not yet set in stone so alternative suggestions are welcome.

If you are looking for somewhere to stay or if you want more information about the hotel and tour costs email penny.

Book by Dr Katie Campbell - our guide

 

Dr Katie Campbell –  our guide for these tours is the author of  the recent book Paradise of Exiles – the Anglo-American Gardens of Florence

Join us for a week of custom designed garden tours with garden historian Dr Katie Campbell

Whether it is a single afternoon or the full five days, walking tours within the city, day trips to nearby hilltop villas or an extended trip around Tuscany, our garden visits can be tailored to your interests and your budget.

Our schedule below offers a small group a private 5 day tour of various Tuscan gardens – many of which are not generally open to the public.

Saturday 12 May - 16.00 – Katie will give a presentation and Q&A -(plus book signing for sure!) – at the newly and beautifully refurbished BM Bookshop on Borgo Ognissanti – the new owner of this delightful shop is called John Werich, and he has kindly agreed to host this afternoon and refreshments will be provided!

Katie will talk about the Anglo- Americans and the Tuscan Villas they bought and gardens they re-furbished with references to some of the writers and painters featured in the current Americans in Florence Exhibition at the Strozzi Palace 

Monday 14 May

private tour to gardens in and around Fiesole 

10.00 Sybil Cutting’s Villa Medici with garden redeveloped by English landscape gardener and architect Cecil Pinsent

11.00  Le Balze - home of American Philosopher Charles Strong

12.30 Vincigliata - visit to house and gardens + wine and cheese tasting at this extraordinary medieval castle rebuilt by English peer – Sir John Temple Leader. NB This castle is not generally open to the public but used for weddings and conferences so we are very privileged as a small group to be allowed to visit.

16.30 Il Palmerino – a glimpse of the home and garden of prolific author Vernon Lee - and maybe a cup of tea while Katie introduces this interesting character!

Cost per head  - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens

 =€99 

Castle + wine tour + wine and degustation lunch at Vincigliata = €30

Cost for day €129 

Tuesday 15 May

09.30 Villa Schifanoia - in San Domenico – one of the many reputed sites of Boccaccio’s Decameron

11.00 La Pietra - a garden stuffed with statues at the home of the Actons

13.00 Lunch near Fiesole - la Casa del Prosciutto 

14.00 - Villa Gamberaia - retreat of Romanian Princess Gyka and English Miss Blood


16.30 Villa Maiano - for wine tasting and antipasti - this is another villa redeveloped by Sir John Temple Leader – now used for period films such as A Room with a View and Tea with Mussolini.

17.30 -if we are in time we hope to drop in for a quick visit to the Iris Gardens of Florence – only open in May with the beautiful view of the City under the setting sun.

Cost per head  - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens

 =€99 

Visit to Villa Maiano + wine tasting and antipasti €15 

Cost for day €114 

Wednesday 16 May 

11.30 Palazzo Picolomini  - in Pienza – home of the humanist Pope Pius 11

1.00 lunch in San Quirico d’Orcia – plus a visit to Horta Leonini another small public garden in the village

3.00 La Foce - home of  author Iris Origo

drive to Montipulicano - trying to follow the route taken by Iris and family when they had to move their school and hospital from La Foce during the Allied attack – we will stop for a glass of wine there before returning to Florence

Cost per head  - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens

 =€109 

lunch and wine at cost but we have a fixed price menu c€20  

Thursday 17 May 

a walking tour of gardens in Central Florence 

10.00 Boboli Gardens- Grand Duke Cosimo 1 and Eleanor de Toledo’s garden behind the Pitti Palace provided entertainment for their growing family and inspiration for Marie de Medici in Paris 

11.30 Bardini gardens - Stefano Bardini - another great collector who sold to the Anglo-American expats

12.30 Tuscan lunch in San Niccolo area

14.30 Giardino Corsini 

16.00 possibly  Giardini dei Torrigiani, 

17.00 Optional taxi up to Bellosguardo for a glass of wine at sunset in the gardens of Torre di Bellosguardo - once home of the formidable Lady Paget

Cost professional guide + entrance to Boboli and Bardini gardens and exhibition of garden painting at the Bardini €60 

Friday 18 May 

a day trip to Lucca 

11.00 Villa Reale aka Villa Marlia - home of Napoleon’s sister when she was Duchess of Tuscany

12.30 Villa Torrigiani, at Camigliano

13.30 lunch in Lucca at Rusticanella 2 

14.30 Palazzo Pfanner a setting for a Portrait of a Lady

 16.00 - Gardini Garzoni in Collodi 

17.30 return to Florence - arrival about 18.45

Cost per head  - tour in private Mini-van with professional driver + private professional garden historian guide + entry fee to gardens

 =€109 

lunch and wine at cost 

Cost  fluctuates daily for private travel in air-conditioned mini-van with Dr Katie Campbell as private tour guide.

Some images below with links to blogs about our 2011 visits

Villa Marlia – not far from Lucca

Marlia Villa Reale Garden

 11.45 Villa Torrigiano – the Garden of Flora

 Palazzo Pfanner Tuesday -the garden of the four elements used in Jane Campions’ film Portrait of a Lady

Villa Garzoni - a mass of walls and mazes 
Villa Garzoni, Italy

Dr Katie Campbell

Katie Campbell

 

About your tutor

Dr Katie Campbell lectures on the postgraduate Garden History course at Buckingham University, she has led many tours and writes for various publications.

Her most recent book, Paradise of Exiles: The Anglo American Gardens of Florence http://www.franceslincoln.co.uk/en-gb/C/0/Book/1355/Paradise_of_Exiles.html explores the eccentric community of English and American expatriates which gathered in Florence at the end of the nineteenth century, while her earlier Icons of Twentieth Century Landscape Design looks at the seminal designs of the past hundred years.

She has also written a book about Scottish Gardens called Policies and Pleasaunces – Scotlands Gardens Today 

Dr Katie Campbell is also a journalist and fiction writer; her plays have been performed on stage and radio and she has published a novel, a collection of short stories and several books of poetry as well as Icons of Twentieth-Century Landscape Design (Frances Lincoln, 2006) and Policies and Pleasances: A Guide to the Gardens of Scotland (Barn Elms, 2007).

Where you can stay?

If you are visiting Florence we can arrange accommodation in various types of accommodation to suit all tastes and pockets.

Villa le Rondini - guests on the tour can stay in the prestigious hotel Villa le Rondini – set in the hills overlooking Florence this hotel shares the extraordinary views enjoyed by the Anglo-Americans who developed their gardens in Fiesole.

www.villalerondini.it

Alternatively Penny can arrange accommodation for you in the centre of Florence.  A small bed sit in a big mansion – San Frediano  offers large rooms with frescoed ceiling and river views – but we need to book early to secure them!

www.sanfredianomansion.com

For more information about the hotel and tour costs email penny direct on penny.howard1@ntlworld.com

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Sir John Temple Leader and his Mock Medieval Castle

6.2.12

Sir John Temple Leader was an enigma -

An English peer , an University friend of Gladstone and a fairly mainstream English eccentric – after having made a fortune in the East India Company Temple-Leader embarked on a promising career as a Whig ( Pre-Liberal) politician, but in the early 1840′s he suddenly quit politics without explanation and left England forever and, after several years of global research, settled on Florence as his ideal homeland.

He set about spending his money with some gusto,  buying not one, but two huge homes in the Florentine hills – the first being Villa Maiano, a typical sixteenth century villa, which is now no longer a family home but used quite regularly for filming, including the famous James Ivory production of  A Room with  A View and as  Cher’s luxury home in Franco Zeffferelli’s  Tea with Mussolini 

The Villa di Maiano, Fiesole

In 1855 Sir John acquired a crumbling ruin – the remains of Castello di Vincigliata, and at the height of the Romantic era set about transforming it into medieval castle, complete with crenellated tower, into setting fitting for a novel by Mrs Ann Radcliffe

Castello Di Vincigliata

Ironically this castle,  originally owned by the Usimbardi – who were friends of Dante and who introduced paned glass to Florence , was reduced to ruins during a raid on behalf of the Pisans led by non other than English fourteenth century mercenary leader and knight Sir John Hawkwood.

Hawkwood, who changed sides from Pisa to Florence at the sight of a larger purse,  is nontheless famously depicted as a saviour of Florence by Paulo Ucello on the walls of the Duomo in Florence.

Temple Leader himself became so fascinated by the similarities between himself and Hawkwood that he wrote a book about him – still available in second hand bookstores in original and, below, in translation.

Front Cover

Not much later the castle had a second unfortunate connection with England  - in 1345  there was a  general crash of Florentine banks  due to bad debts by King Edward III of England for his Cressy and Poitiers campaigns.  Neither the sum borrowed, or the interest thereon was  ever repaid,  as Florentine people rarely fail to remind any Brit who dares to grumble  about high prices!!

As a result of the crisis the castle owners became bancarotta (bankrupt) and it was purchased by Niccolo, son of Ugo degli Albizi, a scion of  the wealthy merchant and banking family famous for trying to get Cosimo il Vecchio out of Florence. So it next housed a branch of the Albizi family, probably for politial reasons now using the name of  Alessandri, for nearly three hundred years – but with the decline of this family fortune it once again sank into decay.

Castello Vincigliata and its environs pictured by Joseph Pennell, c. 1904

Whatever problems Sir John Temple Leader might have had in the UK that caused his precipitate departure, they seem not to have worried the reigning British Monarch, and during one of Queen Victoria’s trips to Florence she came to visit and is shown in the magazine cover below sketching Il Giardino delle Colonne, which was one of the garden features Temple Leader added to the castle.  

Her Majesty painting
Anglo-American writer Henry James wrote of the castle: ‘This elaborate piece of imitation has no superficial use; but, even if it were less complete, less successful, less brilliant, I should feel a reflective kindness for it.  So handsome a piece of work is its own justification; it belongs to the heroics of culture.’
Sir John Temple Leader – who died childless in 1903,  surely deserves his place in history for his restoration of this fantastic building and perhaps even more for restoring it’s surrounding woodland and farm area, which due to excessive quarrying had looked like a moon landscape when he bought it.
The Castle’s connection with England didn’t end with the dissolution of Leader’s  properties however - Between 1941 and 1943 it served as an Officers prisoner of war camp known as Castello di Vincigliata Campo PG12 - or alternatively as the
Italian Colditz!.
Vincigliata - Sir John Temple Leader's castle in the air
Amongst the prisoners were some high ranking British and Commonwealth officers, including Major-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart who was employed by the Italian government in the Armistice negotiations with the Allies in 1943 and  was alleged to be the model for the flamboyant Brigadier Ritchie-Hook in Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy.
Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart by Sir William Orpen.jpg
Sir Adrian wrote,  ‘We learned that Vincigliati (sic) had belonged to an Englishman, a man called Temple Leader.  We considered he had restored the castello in the most thoughtless fashion, giving all his attention to what went on above ground, and regardless of the many underground passages that he had sealed up. He made things very difficult for us”. After five attempts and seven months of tunnelling he managed to get out notwithstanding Temple Leader’s “thoughtlessness” and avoided capture for 8 days in the Italian countryside disguised as an Italian peasant. This was some achievement considering that he did not speak Italian, wore an eye patch, had a hand missing after an attack in WW1 + many other distinguishing injuries – and it says a lot for the generosity of the Italian people that they risked sheltering him given the ferocity of the reprisals taken against anyone found so much as offering succour to a POW or partisan.
Several other prisoners did finally manage to escape – many during the chaos following the armistice in 1943 – and most returned to active service.
Other distinguised prisoners included: - Air-Marshal Owen Boyd,  Lt-General Richard O’Connor, Lt-General Philip Neame, plus New Zealander Brigadiers Reginald Miles and James Hargest.
The photo above shows Lt-General Richard O’Connor (centre, middle distance) along with Brigadier John Combe (left), Lieutenant-General Philip Neame (centre) and Major-General Michael Gambier-Parry (right), and following their capture in North Africa in April 1941 – after which they were transferred to Vincigliata.
The castle is now available for courses and weddings and i am delighted to be revisiting it to taste it’s renowned Testamatta wines - awarded 98% satisfaction by the Wine Spectator recently – with a group later this  week.
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Palazzo Pfanner – a setting for a Portrait of a Lady

10.10.11

Palazzo Pfanner in Lucca

Another setting for a famous film and rightfully so – it is just the place for Gilbert Osmond to lead his too perfect life amongst beautiful but cold statues and an abandoned limonaia.

The Palazzo is near Piazza San Frediano, right in the centre of Lucca, so very convenient to visit before taking lunch.

The original owners were the Moriconi family in the second half of the 17th century but they ran out of money and the development was taken over by the newly ennobled Controni family towards the end of the century. They installed most of the external embellishments and a sign of how their stock had risen was that they gave hospitality at the palazzo to Prince Frederick of Denmark  when he was making his Grand Tour of Italy.

Palazzo Pfanner

Palazzo Pfanner

The Pfanner name comes from a German beer industrialist Felix Pfanner (1818-1892), a local brewer from Hörbranz (Austria), from a Bavarian family, who was invited to Lucca in 1846 to improve the quality of Tuscan beer! The beer factory that he developed in the Palazzo remained open until 1929 – presumably the family, notwithstanding having survived the ousting of Austrians in the Risorgimento, had to leave Italy because they were Germans during the later WW2 years, but the Palazzo and garden still belong to the Pfanner family.

Fountain and sunlight enlivens a four season at Palazzo Pfanner

Fountain and sunlight enlivens a four season at Palazzo Pfanner

This is a small but perfectly formed garden with octagonal pool in the centre of the path leading from the Palazzo providing a perfect symmetry to the view from the door of the Palazzo – a beautiful treasure hidden behind thick Tuscan walls it can also be glimpsed tantalisingly from the walls of the city of Lucca.

 

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Anglo American gardens around the City of Florence – from philosophers to films

4.1011

La Pietra, Le Balze, Villa Medici and Villa Maiano

 

La Pietra

First stop, La Pietra - a magnificent villa and estate with a lineage dating back to the middle ages. The whole estate of farm land, gardens and four villas is now owned by New York University.  The Villa was named because of the milestone at it’s gate marking 1 mile from the city of Florence.

This illustrious family home was built in the 1460s for the Sassetti, a famous Florentine family. Francesco Sassetti was a manager of the Medici bank and a typical figure of Renaissance Florence who is commemorated in a chapel frescoed by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the church of Santa Trinita.

His heirs sold the villa to Piero di Niccolò Capponi in 1545 and the Capponi family remained in residence for over 300 years.  The estate has evolved from a villa rustica - the estate from which the produce was produced solely to support the owner’s life in Florence City centre – into an independent house devoted to intellectual pursuits and enjoyment of beauty for it’s own sake – the life of an aesthete!

In1904 the estate was bought by Arthur Acton who presided over the change from farm to last refuge of the aesthete – not without considerable financial support from the banking family of his American wife Hortense Mitchell!

After the death of both their son, William in 1917  writer and aesthete Harold Acton was brought home from Hong Kong to manage the estate. His friends who were frequent guests at La Pietra included Nancy Mitford (the subject of a biography by Acton), Evelyn Waugh, the Earl and Countess of Rosse, and the Sitwells.

During the Acton’s stay in Florence the gardens were transformed from a rustic flat wilderness to a structured garden stuffed with statues – most of which were for sale to art collectors from America and Europe.

Several garden architects have been credited with support for this enterprise but Harold Acton describes the garden as having been essentially restored by his father.

On Harold’s death in 1994 the estate was bequeathed to New York University on the condition that financial support should be given to maintain the property and garden as it had been in the 1930′s.

Old photos are carefully studied to ensure that replacement plants are put in precisely the same place to maintain the effect and a curtain of trees are growing up to hide the untidy sprawl of modern Florence from the visitors eye!

la Pietra
Gardens at La Pietra – with view overlooking Florence

These large green gardens include several “rooms” containing sculptures and fountains in  an ideal setting for resale to visiting customers.

Villa Le Balze 

Georgetown University students on a semester in Florence have the immense privilege of this view from their schoolroom windows. This is because, like La Pietra, this villa was given as a bequest to an American University.  In this case in 1979, when the Marquesa Rockefeller, daughter of Philosopher Dr. Charles Augustus Strong and Elizabeth Rockefeller donated her father’s estate, Villa Le Balze, to Georgetown University as a centre for study and reflection.

Images of the Villa that switch with each day

Le Balze was developed by architect and garden designer Cecil Pinsent as a retreat from society for Philosopher Charles Strong  ( 1860-1940) and his 9 year old daughter.  He faced the same challenge that Michelozzi faced with the Villa Medici – how to move sufficient earth and create sustaining walls to sustain the villa on this narrow strip of land.

The resulting house and garden look like a Renaissance ideal – celebrating the harmony between man and nature – an ideal retreat for a philospher.

St Jerome’s retreat above the Villa -built in the 14th century – was chosen by Michael Ondaatje as the site where his “English Patient” became a sick resident until his death.

Villa Medici 

Cosimo the Elder asked his favourite architect Michelozzo to build Villa Medici at Fiesole in 1451. One of the first villas in Tuscany not build for defence but for intellectual contemplation and for pleasure – a place where banking could be forgotten and humanist life lived to the full.

 

 

Cosimo based his idea of an ornamental pleasure garden on the writings of the fifteenth century Renaissance architect and humanist, Leon Battista Alberti. The Villa is featured as a landmark in some paintings of the period – notably the Dormition of the Virgin by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

When Sybil Cutting first rented, and later bought, the  in the 20th century another parterre garden was created by the “Archichokes” English architects Cecil Pinsent and Geoffrey Scott (3).

Her writer daughter Iris was brought up in the Medici Villa in Fiesole and after her marriage to Antonio Origo she also employed Cecil Pinsent to design her new gardens at La Foce in Val d’Orcia.

Villa Maiano

Our final visit of the day was to Villa Maiano where we saw the house and garden used by Merchant and Ivory in a Room with a View and the terrace where Elsa splashed out her champagne in Tea with Mussolini.

 

 

Our next garden tours with Katie Campbell are this weekend  Saturday 8 October at Medici and Corsini villas around Florence and on Sunday 9th October a day trip to visit 5 gardens around Lucca.

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