WW2
The American War Graves in Florence
May 8, 2012 | 
Author 8.5.2012
The Florence American Cemetery
Yesterday on our wine tour we wanted to make the most of our day in the country “before the sun goes over the yard arm” and so we took our American guests to visit various non-wine related places near Florence.
Our first stop was this amazing 70 acre site, framed by woodland and carefully maintained for posterity, to offer solace to the many Americans who come to pay their respects to over 4,400 fallen friends and family.
There are two wings of white crosses arrayed in symmetrical curved rows upon the hillside – they look beautiful under the Tuscan sun – and it seems a rather wonderful final resting place.
This huge cemetery only represents 39% of the U.S. Fifth Army who died after the capture of Rome in June 1944 whilst the Allies made their way up the peninsula of Italy.
Sadly there was particularly heavy fighting, and therefore Allied losses, in the Apennines Mountains only months before the war’s end – when the enemy troops finally surrendered on May 2, 1945.
When the Allies arrived in Florence they found all the bridges destroyed by the retreating Germans – except the Ponte Vecchio – and the route to the Ponte Vecchio was blocked by the rubble of many beautiful Pallazzi destroyed on the South side of the Arno leading to the bridge. It is for this reason that Florence now has newly built houses around the Ponte Vecchio.
The bridges had to be rebuilt, and it was the Black US soldiers, who at that time were rarely allowed into regular combats units, who undertook the difficult, but ultimately satisfying, task of recreating these beautiful symbols of Florence.
Tags: 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.
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
11.45 Villa Torrigiano – the Garden of Flora
Dr 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.
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!
For more information about the hotel and tour costs email penny direct on penny.howard1@ntlworld.com
Posted in Books, Feature, films set in Italy, Painting, Renaissance Art, Social History, Tuscan gardens, Wine tasting, WW2 | 
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Testamatta – my heads in a whirl!
7.2.12
Another visit to Vincigliata – Sir John Temple Leader’s mock medieval castle! - but although today it was so bitterly cold our welcome was as warm as ever!
Lions at Vincigliata
These days this splendid castle is usually only opened for weddings and courses where in the summer I am sure it is a fantastic venue for such events.
We were fortunate – because it is winter they took our booking for a small group on a private visit including wine tasting – and it went down very well!
The castle itself is stuffed with statues and various eclectic items added to the castle when it was rebuilt over 18 years in the 1850-60′s – as this included the period when Florence was reinventing itself as the Capital of the newly combined country of Italy - Sir John Temple Leader got lucky in his search for quirky historic items partly because – as one of my group commented- there was a lot of treasure to be found in the skips in those days!
Some of these items are original gargoyles and statues that were replaced in the “new” Florence – and as such – although well weather worn – they are probably more valuable than those that they were replaced with!
Another feature within the castle is the contract of sale – literally made in stone – and sadly not very photogenic but if you look closely you can see the Temple Leader coat of arms – now displayed on the wall in one of their rooms.
Contract of sale of Vincigliata to Sir John Temple Leader
Above – the Contract of sale of Vincigliata to Sir John Temple Leader
We also visited the mock medieval tower of the castle that Temple Leader lovingly reconstructed to make his castle look the part. It was from the original tower that young bride to be, Bianca , waited for her lover to ride down from a nearly castle and take her to wife. Unfortunately her family were like the Montagues of Verona – and not keen that their daughter should consort with a rival family – so this poor “Juliet” had full view of her “Romeo” being cut down off his steed and slashed to pieces by her own brother – overcome with grief and despair the young girl threw herself off the tower – and now legend has it that her grieving ghost still walks the castle – and is a good omen if you see her as she offers her protection to other impossible love matches.
Exit from tower to viewing platform
The Tower exit alone was a challenge for our group – not a exactly as model of health and safety design – but the view over Florence and across Tuscany – especially when it is warmer – is worth the effort – and quite a thought that escaping Allied prisoners of war had to make their way through these forests to – hopefully – meet up with the partisans and get guided to the Swiss border.
Views from Vincigliata tower
So onto the wine tasting , which to be honest was a relief after the cold of the castle tower , the castle is now owned by the family of Bibi Graetz - who have entered into the wine making market in the past twelve years – and have created some wonderful wines – one of which, Testamatta ( head spin!) was given a 98% approval rating by the Wine Spectator for their 2006 wine – not bad for beginners!!
Happily my group enjoyed the wines very much – we had some excellent canapes with the tasting and some supplies were purchased for future enjoyment.
I am already looking forward to my next visit in April!
Posted in Fresco painting, Renaissance Art, Social History, Tuscan gardens, Wine tasting, WW2 | 1 Comment »
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
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!
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.
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.
Posted in films set in Italy, Renaissance Art, Social History, Tuscan gardens, Wine tasting, WW2 | No Comments »
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