An historic Italian house with world-famous gardens, Villa La Foce was originally built at the end of the 15th-century as a wayside tavern, but soon became the centre of a vast estate owned by the great Sienese Hospital and Monastery of Santa Maria della Scala. When the Marquises Antonio and Iris Origo bought the estate of La Foce in 1924, they engaged British society architect and family friend Cecil Pinsent to restructure the main buildings and create a large garden, which was conceived to enhance the Renaissance house and expand the spectacular view of the Val d’Orcia and Mount Amiata in southern Tuscany near Pienza. The harmony between buildings, garden and nature makes La Foce a beautiful example of Tuscany's architectural and cultural evolution in the 20th century, and is one of the most beautiful gardens in Italy. The house is surrounded by a formal Italian garden, which is divided into geometrical ‘rooms’ by box hedges with lemon trees in terracotta pots. Travertine stairs lead to the rose garden and a winding wisteria-covered pergola bordered by lavender hedge. Gentle informal terraces climb up the hill, where cherry trees, pines and cypress grow among wild broom, thyme and rosemary, and a long cypress avenue leads to a 17th-century stone statue, considered to be one of Pinsent's best creations.
Parts of the garden are open to the public on certain days on strictly guided tours, however the garden by the house and the pool remain private. La Foce has a garden shop, including Iris Origo’s classics or literature about the region’s history and Tuscan gardens, as well as local pottery, lavender perfumes, linens, magnets, postcards, hats, and of course the famous La Foce olive oil. The two rooms that are now the shop used to be part of the ‘Fattoria’, which was the centre of the estate from which all the outlying farms depended, and includes the old kitchen, with an enormous fireplace and behind it, and the oven where bread used to be made for the whole community. Today the estate is run by the Origo daughters, Benedetta and Donata.
Just down the road is Ristorante Dopolavoro La Foce, which was built in 1939 as a meeting place for the workers on the La Foce estate, but is now a rather nice restaurant offering traditional Tuscan dishes flavoured with the delicious La Foce extra-virgin olive oil, and boasts its own vegetable garden across the road, guaranteeing a genuine farm-to-table process.
Pomegranate trees in the courtyard of Villa La Foce
The tour started in the courtyard of the original Fattoria
Villa La Foce portico
Sibylla Holtz, a local painter who doubles as a garden guide and led our tour for the afternoon
Private box hedge path to the outdoor swimming pool
Beautiful swimming pool with poolside limonaia,
a winter citrus house which was once de rigueur at fashionable villas
Sculpture symbolizing the search for water at La Foce was created by
Antonio Origo's father Clemente Origo
The Lemon Garden with clipped box hedges
Lush lemon trees
Villa La Foce
Looking from the garden into Villa La Foce summer breakfast room with gurgling fountain
A cascade of roses envelop a garden urn
The fountain is supported by a sculpture of three fish
Pickets of cypress and walls of boxwood clipped into oblongs capped with half-globes lead the eye down a series of “rooms” into the untamed expanse of field and mountain
Bright red geraniums beautifully contrast with the lush green background
Terraced slopes rise gently up the hill, where cherry trees and pines grow among wild broom, thyme and rosemary, and a long avenue of cypresses leads to a 17th-century stone statue
Villa La Foce Italian Gardens — il Parco più bello d'Italia
Handsome 17th-century stone statue nestled in the garden
Water lily in the pond
Travertine stairs lead to the rose garden and a winding wisteria-covered pergola
bordered by lavender hedge
The Wisteria Arbour Walk
Pears are just one of the fruits grown on the estate
As she shepherded us from terrace to parterre, urn to fountain, travertine steps to herbaceous border, Sibylla sprinkled her talk with equal parts history, botany, garden design and family gossip
Flowers were in bloom throughout the gardens
A hidden walkway at La Foce and one of the most beautiful gardens in Italy — Il Parco più bello d'Italia
Iris's rose garden has been modernised with plantings from all over the world, and these days two full-time gardeners care for the garden
Ristorante Dopolavoro La Foce was built in 1939 as a meeting place for the workers on the La Foce estate, but is now a lovely restaurant offering a traditional Tuscan menu
Staff of Dopolavoro in the outdoor garden restaurant
La Foce Tagliatelle with wild boar ragu and blackberries
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