Posted By Mary Freeland on April 13, 2010

With Spring making her debut, I thought we would take a stroll through the gardens of Florence, Tuscany. Given the rain and overcast skies outside my window, there is no place I would rather be.

The Villa Medici-Fiesole is one of the oldest Renaissance residences and has one of the best maintained gardens complete with a pergola covered in roses and a fountain. The Medici’s were grounded in agriculture but this villa outside Florence, Tuscany has nothing to do with farming. Giovanni de Medici purchased this land in 1946. His father, Cosimo, felt it was a bad purchase because the steep, rocky location wasn’t suitable for growing anything.

Giovanni was a banker with forward thinking ideas. He had no intention of farming the land, instead he wanted to create a place that embraced Pliny’s idea that the garden should be an extension combining home, nature and, of course, the view that led Giovanni to purchase this piece of land. He wanted to create and outdoor room. In homage of the mythical garden of Hesperides, Giovanni brought in lemon trees from Naples, Italy. An interesting note about the Hesperides, they were the nymphs of the night that were tasked with guarding the apple tree in the mystical garden that Gaia, the earth mother, gave to Hera.

Giovanni’s overindulgence in food and drink caused him to have a heart attack in his forties. He didn’t get to enjoy the fruits of his labor but his nephew, Lorenzo the Magnificent, did. The villa became the meeting place for the Neo-Platonic Academy. Members of the Academy had discussions about happiness and perfection being attainable now, not waiting to achieve it in the afterlife. Some of his friends included the renown Italian artists Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Botticelli. He also invited philosophers, poets, and musicians.

The Medici family owned the property until 1671. After that, the property changed hands many times. Each owner made changes to the design of the gardens until they arrived at the design they hold today. For example, Giovanni’s herb gardens have been replaced by neatly trimmed boxwoods and potted lemon trees are arranged on the front lawn. Lady Orford changed the organization of the villa when she moved the entrance from the Via Vecchia Fiesolana to what is now known as Via Beato Angelico. The most beloved owner is Iris Origo. This Britain born woman moved to the villa with her mother, Lady Sybil Cutting, when she was a child and grew up there.

Iris was so fond of the Medici villa gardens that when she and her husband moved to La Foce, a farm in Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia, she drew on her memories of English gardens and the Fiesole Villa Medici Renaissance gardens to create it.

I am looking forward to our next Tuscan garden stroll. I hope you will join me!

Categories: Travel, Uncategorized
Tags: history, Italian, Italy, tuscan villa, Tuscany