Antonio Origo -an Italian nobleman from Florence- and Iris, his young wife, bought La Foce in 1924 and dedicated their lives to bringing progress and social change to the poverty-ridden valley. During the Second World War and in its aftermath, the Origos remained at La Foce and sheltered evacuated children and escaped prisoners of war. Iris gives a vivid description of the events that engulfed La Foce during these difficult years in her book War in Val d’Orcia.
The estate lies among the hills overlooking the Val d’Orcia, a beautiful and miraculously intact valley in southern Tuscany. Midway between Florence and Rome, it is also within easy reach of Siena, Arezzo, Perugia, Assisi and Orvieto. Renaissance and medieval gems such as Pienza, Montepulciano, Montichiello and Montalcino are only a few miles away.
The gardens of La Foce (featured in the BBC2’s Monty Don’s Italian Gardens) were designed by the English architect Cecil Pinsent, who also created Bernard Berenson’s garden at Villa I Tatti. Conceived to enhance the Villa and expand the spectacular view over the valley of the Orcia river to Monte Amiata beyond, they were laid out between 1924 and 1939. The terraces gently blend with the landscape, following the humanistic Renaissance ideal of geometrical order close to the house, gradually becoming wilder as they approach the woods. Lemon pots, roses, Mediterranean plants, wisteria, box parterres, laurel and cypress hedges, and paths and benches of travertine punctuate the natural curves of the hills.
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