Gardens in Tuscany | Villa La Foce | Podere Santa Pia, Holiday house in the south of Tuscany

Iris Origo and Villa La Foce

The gardens and estate of La Foce constitute one of the most important and best kept early twentieth-century gardens in Italy. The property of La Foce lies on the hills overlooking the Val d'Orcia, a beautiful and miraculously intact valley in Southern Tuscany.
The area of Val d'Orcia is a part of the agricultural landscape of Siena, which was developed and redrawn when it was made a part of the city-state in the 14th and 15th centuries. Val d'Orcia's landscape, with its fortified villages and small towns, is typical of the area and had inspired several artists. Named to UNESCO's World Heritage Site list, Val d'Orcia is famous for its representation of the Renaissance's ideal landscape and good government.
The area spreads fro the hills south of Siena towards Monte Amiata. The region is characterized by cultivated hills dotted with gullies and small, charming villages and towns like Pienza, Radicofani and Montalcino, famous for its wines, Montepulciano, Monticchiello, and Bagno Vignoni, with their cultural, historical and artistic treasures. The area is of Etruscan origins, and many of the burial sites that are open to the public have only been discovered recently.


Villa La Foce
'It was in this region, not far from Montepulciano and Pienza, that Iris Origo[1], an American woman married to an Italian aristocrat, spent 1943 and 1944 living on the family estate at La Foce. Here, Origo, her family, various hired hands, their families and as many as fifty-seven farmers (and their extended families) occupying the farms on the family estate across seven thousand acres witnessed the collapse of Mussolini’s government, the retreat of the German army, and the eventual allied victory during World War II.' (...) 'Iris Cutting was born to an American father and Irish mother in 1902. Her father died in 1910 but the estate he left his widow allowed Iris to grow up living amid expatriate Americans and British in Italy amid both fine society and fine Renaissance villas. We learn from Denis Mack Smith, eminent British historian of Italian history, in his introduction to War in Val d’Orcia that Iris’s mother chose Italy because of the wish of her husband that Iris be “brought up in France or Italy or at all events ‘somewhere where she does not belong’ in order to become cosmopolitan and free from any narrow patriotism.” Iris married Antonio Origo, illegitimate son of Marchese Clemente Origo, in 1924 and became fully integrated into this wealthy Italian family.'[3] Origo (née Cutting) was born in 1902. Her father, an American, died when she was seven. He wrote to her Anglo-Irish mother Sybil Desart: "All this national feeling makes people so unhappy. Bring her up somewhere where she does not belong … I'd like her to be a little 'foreign'." Origo was brought up in the Villa Medici in Fiesole. Her choice of husband, a man a decade her senior who "grew up in the laundry with the servants", was not what was expected of her at all. Her mother spent the wedding day in bed. When the Origos decided to live at La Foce, their friends and family thought they were mad. No one moved to the countryside like that, particularly not to such a ramshackle estate on a windswept hill, with no running water and – worst of all – no polite company. The desire to reconstruct a new society ("our shared youthful dream", as Origo referred to it) drove the couple. Their decision to do what they felt to be morally right, rather than what was socially acceptable among their class, came to be what La Foce and the Origos were remembered for, as one of the only aristocratic families in Italy who helped escaping prisoners, partisans and deserters during the second world war. In this, and in other ways, they were unique.'		Antonio and Iris Origo The gardens of La Foce
After buying their new home, Antonio and Iris employed the services of English architect Cecil Pinsent. Iris already knew Cecil as he had worked on her mother's house, Villa Medici, in Fiesole, and the nearby house of friend Bernard Berenson, Villa I Tatti. On these two properties Cecil had proved not only that he could design and redesign a home, but also that he was also talented in creating landscapes. Bernard Berenson and his wife Mary bought Villa I Tatti in 1905. In 1909 they commissioned the English architect Cecil Ross Pinsent (1884–1963) to supervise a series of extensions and alterations to Villa I Tatti, as well as to design a garden and supervise its planting and construction with the help of the English writer-scholar Geoffrey Scott (1884 – 1929).[2]
The famous winding road with cypresses
The cypresses that twine up a hill side near Chianciano Terme have become an emblem of Tuscany. But they also have a story, for they were planted by Marchese and Marchesa Origo as part of a scheme to improve the landscape of what was then among Italy's most desolate regions. They also, no doubt, softened the view from the masterpiece the idealistic young couple created nearby, at what had been until their arrival a wayside inn: one of the most dramatic twentieth-century gardens. La Foce has also become a centre for cultural and artistic activities. Castelluccio (literally little castle), a mediaeval castle on the property, is the home of an international music festival, Incontri in Terra di Siena. It also hosts art exhibitions, as well as courses on garden history and landscaping. Each summer, the cultural association La Tartaruga organizes art shows at the medieval castle Castelluccio. The curator, Plinio de Martiis (known for his important gallery in Rome) has in recent years brought the work of renowned artists such as Kounellis and Manzoni to Castelluccio, as well as promoting young, less famous artists. Incontri in Terra di Siena is a not-for-profit cultural association, in memory of Antonio Origo and his wife Iris, the well-known Anglo-American writer. Based at Villa La Foce and the nearby medieval castle, Castelluccio, Incontri's aim is to spread the appreciation of music and art through concerts, meetings, and artistic events held in the many beautiful neighbouring towns that include Pienza, Radicofani, Cetona, Città della Pieve and San Quirico d'Orcia. The Incontri in Terra di Siena chamber music festival has branched out, gathering regional and international support. It is a key part of a wider initiative to sustain the area, the passion that originally drove the Origos. Incontri in Terra di Siena \| www.itslafoce.org		Winding road with cypresses between La Foce and Monticchiello Castelluccio

Villa La Foce enlarge map
Cecil Pinsent and his gardens in Tuscany. Edited by M. Fantoni, H. Flores and J. Pfordresher. Edifir, Florence 1999. ISBN 8879700790. Villa La Foce Estate \| La Foce - 61, Strada della Vittoria -53042 Chianciano Terme - Siena \| www.lafoce.com Richard Maxwell Dunn, Geoffrey Scott and the Berenson Circle: Literary and Aesthetic Life in the Early 20th Century, Edwin Mellen Press, 1998 Tuscany \| The Val d'Orcia Villa La Foce Estate \| La Foce - 61, Strada della Vittoria -53042 Chianciano Terme - Siena \| www.lafoce.com Richard Maxwell Dunn, Geoffrey Scott and the Berenson Circle: Literary and Aesthetic Life in the Early 20th Century, Edwin Mellen Press, 1998, ISBN 088946927X, 9780889469273 Art in Tuscany \| Bernard Berenson
[1] 'Iris Origo (née Cutting) was born in 1902. Her father, an American, died when she was seven. He wrote to her Anglo-Irish mother Sybil Desart: "All this national feeling makes people so unhappy. Bring her up somewhere where she does not belong … I'd like her to be a little 'foreign'." Origo was brought up in the Villa Medici in Fiesole. Her choice of husband, a man a decade her senior who "grew up in the laundry with the servants", was not what was expected of her at all. Her mother spent the wedding day in bed. When the Origos decided to live at La Foce, their friends and family thought they were mad. No one moved to the countryside like that, particularly not to such a ramshackle estate on a windswept hill, with no running water and – worst of all – no polite company. The desire to reconstruct a new society ("our shared youthful dream", as Origo referred to it) drove the couple. Their decision to do what they felt to be morally right, rather than what was socially acceptable among their class, came to be what La Foce and the Origos were remembered for, as one of the only aristocratic families in Italy who helped escaping prisoners, partisans and deserters during the second world war. In this, and in other ways, they were unique.'
[2] Villa I Tatti \| The famous art historian, Bernard Berenson, bought the Villa I Tatti in 1905 and (in 1909) commissioned two Englishmen (Cecil Ross Pinsent and Geoffrey Scott) to re-design the garden. Scott was famous as the author of a book on The Architecture of Humanism. Pinsent was a young and unknown architect. They began work at a time when Arts and Crafts designers, inspired by Blomfield, Sedding and others, were filled with enthusiasm for Italian renaissance gardens.The results of their work has many renaissance features, and a friendly pastiche charm, but it does not have the disciplined 'feel' of a genuine renaissance garden. It is now owned by Harvard University and they have a very restrictive policy regarding garden photography. The famous art historian, Bernard Berenson, bought the Villa I Tatti in 1905 and (in 1909) commissioned two Englishmen (Cecil Ross Pinsent and Geoffrey Scott) to re-design the garden. Scott was famous as the author of a book on The Architecture of Humanism. Pinsent was a young and unknown architect. They began work at a time when Arts and Crafts designers, inspired by Blomfield, Sedding and others, were filled with enthusiasm for Italian renaissance gardens.The results of their work has many renaissance features, and a friendly pastiche charm, but it does not have the disciplined 'feel' of a genuine renaissance garden. It is now owned by Harvard University and they have a very restrictive policy regarding garden photography. 'The surviving documentation suggests that, while Pinsent was certainly the maitre d’oeuvre for this job, he had to contend with patrons who had clear ideas about what they wanted their garden to look like. Both Mary Berenson and Bernard did not fail to ask their architect for some substantial modifications to his original project, which intervention was all the more understandable as this was Pinsent’s first major commission. Work on the garden of Villa I Tatti began with the construction of a little house at the bottom of the property to house the head gardener, and a large cistern sunk into the ground at the very top of the garden to provide a more adequate water supply for the planned plantings. This cistern, fed by spring water that still ensures the water necessary for the garden, was above all destined to keep the Berensons’ "English lawns" flourishing in a climate that was hardly favorable to such a luxury. In the Spring and Summer of 1912 the intricate pebble mosaics (still much admired) were completed on the landings of the staircase of the Italian garden and in various other parts of the garden. Work in the garden continued well into 1914, although it was to come to a halt in late August due to the beginning of the First World War. Fears of a conflict that would involve all of the peninsula, combined with apprehensions with respect to possible difficulties in transferring funds, stopped most of the building activity at that point in time. When work was resumed some years later the garden was finally brought to completion, with only some small modifications that did not significantly alter the construction and plantings that had been accomplished before the war.' [Gardens \| Villa I Tatti \| www.itatti.harvard.edu] [3] Rick Price, War in Val d’Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944 by Iris Origo, \| www.experienceplus.com/blog		War in Val d’Orci, cover
'The estate of La Foce was located a hundred miles north of Rome, between Siena and Lake Trasimene. This particular area was carefully selected by the Origos because it was a barren region that could be improved by a planned program of intensive cultivation. The Val d’Orcia had been much neglected over the centuries, laid bare by soil erosion and desolated by wars between rival city-states. The new owners set about restoring it to life. Fifteen years of hard work resulted in the establishment of fifty farms, each of about a hundred acres, all grouped round one central fattoria where the Origo family lived and where all the general decisions were made about what crops to grow and what agricultural methods to adopt. Each tenant farmer held his individual farm by the usual Tuscan system of mezzadria, sharing all produce with the proprietor but depending on him for equipment and capital. While her husband introduced modern farming techniques and a rational system of cultivation, the Marchesa set up a health centre and a school for ninety children. Evening classes were also provided for adults. She found the valley a wild district, with over eighty per cent illiteracy, where the peasants were instinctively opposed to any innovation and where witches and witch-doctors helped to regulate the life of the population. But during these fifteen years, there was a gradual growth in prosperity, and the whole society began to change and develop.' [Denis Mack Smith, Introduction to War in Val d’Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944 by Iris Origo] [4] Iris Origo, a plain girl who turned herself into a woman of great elegance, was, by all accounts, an obsessive writer. "She always wrote in the morning and came down to lunch in a terrible mood as she had to stop," her daughter Benedetta recalls. Several of her books were international bestsellers when published and many remain in print decades later. Origo is best known for her diary, War in the Val D'Orcia, and her ability, as critic and biographer Quentin Bell put it, "to bring even mountains to life," in her biographical work, such as The Merchant of Prato: Francesco Di Marco Datini – Daily Life in a Medieval Italian City, which enabled her to convey the vivacity of long-dead Italian personalities. In 1947, Origo persuaded Count Gamba to let her have access to his great-aunt's papers; the considerable cache resulted in her internationally acclaimed book, The Last Attachment, an intimate account of Lord Byron's affair with Baroness Teresa Guiccioli. The writer Caroline Moorehead, met and interviewed Origo for a feature in the Times in 1988 and later decided to make her the subject of a biography. Moorehead’s Iris Origo, Marchesa d"Orcia is based on the eloquent and perceptive life-writing of its subject, especially the war memoir, War in Val d’Orcia, An Italian War Diary, 1943-44 and Origo’s last autobiography, Images and Shadows.		Images and Shadows, cover
Tuscan Holiday houses \| Podere Santa Pia



Podere Santa Pia	Podere Santa Pia, garden	Castel Porrona, a charming medieval village dating back to the 11th century, between Cinigiano and Castiglioncello Bandini and Podere Santa Pia


Montepulciano	Pienza	The Ombrone valley, seen from Podere Santa Pia

Monticchiello is a small centre in the heart of the Orcia valley whose beauty derives from its geographical position and the harmonious integration of its medieval architecture Monticchiello is one of the most picturesque villages in the heart of the Val d'Orcia. Monticchiello still has its original city walls, towers, and castle, while the main site is the 13th century gothic church, which contains a beautiful altarpiece. Teatro Povero Every year since 1967, the ancient village of Monticchiello has been transformed into an entirely original theatre stage. The community enacts itself by means of a theatrical representation which Giorgio Strehler defined as “self-drama”. Here, the theatre originated in the square, and it is indeed the square, which represents the – even ideal – centre of the village that in summer houses the performances “created, written and performed by the people of Monticchiello”. The topics dealt with have as their background the current events of the community and their roots in the past: the rustic culture, for centuries the expert on life, swept aside by the advance of progress, wars, old and new, with their ravages, the false myths pursued and never attained. They narrate themselves so as to understand themselves and other people, to try to understand how events in the world are progressing. At Monticchiello, the theatre is also identity, testimony, civil commitment, and – thanks to the cultural excitement that accompanies it (collateral initiatives, exhibitions, meetings, study days) – constitutes an important instrument of social aggregation for the inhabitants and the devoted members of the audience. During the winter months, there is discussion on the theme to be dealt with, and preparation is begun of the texts and sets. Later on, in the square during the summer rehearsals, the ideas take on form and the contents are consolidated. Thus, the proposal of the “Teatro Povero” is born day by day. It is performed every evening for three weeks, from the end of July till the middle of August.		Monticchiello, one of the towers
Castiglioncello del Trinoro is a tiny village on a cliff overlooking the Orcia Valley, between La Foce and Sarteano, on the hill of Pietraporciana, a protected beech-wood has proved to be of special interest to the Italian botanical society. Castiglioncello del Trinoro is a typical medieval village, a small collection of houses around a castle perched on a high ridge overlooking the Orcia Valley. Monteverdi Tuscany Via di Mezzo, 53047 Castiglioncello del Trinoro
Pietraporciana Nature Reserve covers the top, the northern side, and part of the southern side of the homonymous hillock (847 m), belonging to the ridge that, between Chianciano Terme and Sarteano, separates Val d’Orcia from Val di Chiana, linking up southwards with Mt. Cetona. An unusual low-altitude beech tree wood grows in the Reserve: it takes advantage of the coolness and humidity dominating the upper part of the northern slope of Poggio di Pietraporciana, at the shadow of the calcareous cliffs outcropping at the top. One of the worthwhile places to see while in the reserve is the tiney hamlet of Castglioncello sul Trinoro, this tiny ‘borgo', which is perched atop a high hill, offers a breath taking panorama of the entire Val d'Orcia. On the northern side of the reserve there is a beautiful woods of beech, a relic of the ice age, which is the host for two species of plant particularly rare in Italy, the Belldonna, with its poisonous blue fruit and the Fusaggine Maggiore (Spindle tree). On the south side of the mountain is the Mount Cetona. This is the limit of the Val d’Orcia. From here on starts the Val di Chiana. Sarteano, Monticchiello, Chianciano and Pienza are all at a relatively short distance. Therefore you can easily incorporate a portion of the park in your biking tour in Val d’Orcia. The route is about 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) long, although you can take various detours that will lead you to different sides of the mountain. The entire park can be easily crossed within a half day. Riserva Naturale di Pietraporciana (it) (341 ha)		View Natural Reserve in Tuscany of Pietraporciaia in a larger map


Podere Santa Pia, evening view on the Maremma from the southern terrace