Scarzuola
Is just a short drive away from Citta della Pieve and guided tours are given to view the gardens and buildings taking between 2 and 3 hours at 10.00 euros per person for groups of 8.
According to tradition, St.
Francis of Assisi founded the Convento della Scarzuola in 1218,
near the small town of Montegiove, and there he made a miracle.The
convent of the Scarzuola was built near the church of Nerio di
Bulgaruccio. The apse of the church was discovered in 1996 as
well as a fresco of the first half of the XIII century and
historians of art consider it one the first portraits of St.
Francis, while he was in a state of levitation, however the
friars abandoned it at the end of 1876. The marquises
Misciattelli from Orvieto took it then in 1956 the architect
Tommaso Buzzi bought the complex and built the Città Buzziana
and the gardens of La Scarzuola which are modelled on the
descriptions in Polyphilus’ "Dream of the Strife of
Love", of 1499. The gardens are divided into various themed
‘cities’. The sort of aim of his plan was to create a
"ideal" where a blend nature result and between culture
could take place. The has been an 
architectural complex kind where symbolism's,
allegories and any of citations are scattered and throughout it
and where there are many small empty rooms that make it created
appear like a giant terrarium. This is how he this bridge between
old and and new, keeping the structure of the convent adding his
"ideal city" to it. composition The Città Buzziana is
an architectural inspired from neo-Mannerism staircases that as
it can be inferred from the cross the complex and by the
proportion of its extension and the lack of shapes, but also from
the numerous statues that are present throughout.
La
foce,
61, Strada della Vittoria, Chianciano Terme, Sienna,
Tuscany
Located in the Val d'Orcia on the other side of Mount Cetona and less than an hours drive from our location.
In 1924 it was purchased
by Antonio and Iris Origo, who turned the villa into their
comfortable home, from where they farmed and developed the land.
The now famous gardens, created by Iris Origo and the English
architect Cecil Pinsent - The house is surrounded by a formal
Italian garden, a "labor of love" growing gradually,
between 1925 and 1939. which is divided into geometrical
‘rooms’ by box hedges with lemon trees in terracotta
pots. Traventine 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 cypresses grow among wild broom, thyme
and rosemary, and a long cypress avenue leads to a 17th-century
stone statue. Through the wood, a path joins the garden and the
family cemetery, 
considered
one of Pinsent's best creations
Opening hours: the garden is open to the public every Wednesday afternoon. Guided tours leave from the Fattoria courtyard every hour from 3 to 7 PM (April-September) and 3 to 5 PM (October-March).
Boboli gardens, Florence
Florence is just an hours comfortable train
ride from Chuisi, so no worries about parking while you tour the
town, Pitti palace and the famous Boboli gardens. The first part
of the garden was bought in 1550 by Eleonora di Toledo, the wife
of Cosimo I de' Medici, from the Pitti family. The originlal
landscaping was carried out by Niccolò Pericoli detto Tribolo;
but 3 others designed and oversaw works for 20 years including
the large semi-elliptical area known as the Amphitheatre, 
which was later to create a harmonious whole
with the two wings of Ammanati's courtyard, was dug out of a huge
stone quarry at the foot of the Belvedere hill. This
architectural feature serves to visually unify the Pitti Palace
and Boboli Gardens. After 1574 Francis I called upon the help of
the architect Bernardo Buontalenti, who designed the Grotta Grande. The niches at the sides of the
entrance to the grotto hold the statues of Bacchus and Ceres by
Baccio Bandinelli (1552-1556). Until 1924, when they were
replaced with cement casts, Michelangelo's Prisoners stood in the
corners.During the early 17th century,the garden was extended
beyond the wall built during the war against Siena.
The ideal axis of the
garden is the cypress avenue leading to the impressive Bacino
dell'Isola (Island Basin), built between 1612 and 1620. Giulio
Parigi was also responsible for the Vasca dell'Isola (Island Pond),
originally at the centre of the pond was a Venus fountain,
replaced by Giambologna's Oceanus in 1636 upon the orders of
Grand Duke Ferdinando II. During that same year, the statue of
Plenty, begun by Giambologna and completed by Pietro Tacca was
placed in its current position.
In the 18th century, under Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine (1765-1790)
the Kaffeehaus (1775) and the Limonaia were constructed, designed
by Zanobi del Rosso, and the Palazzina della Meridiana, begun in
1776 by Niccolò Gaspero Paoletti. Then a new phase of decadence
took place during the period of Napoleonic rule (1799-1814) and
again after the failed attempt of the Grand Duchess Elisa
Baciocchi to transform Boboli into an English-style garden. The
restoration under the Lorraine family restored the original
formal appearance of the Boboli Gardens. In 1834, under Leopoldo
II, the labyrinths were destroyed to make way for a wide avenue
suitable for carriages, following the design of Pasquale
Poccianti.
During the 19th century, the garden provided the backdrop for
spectacular open-air entertainment.
Two
Gardens of Rome
Easy to visit by train is
the Villa dei Medici Gardens, (Viale Trinità dei Monti 2),
that were called "the most enchanting place"
in Rome by Henry James, who went on to write that the gardens
were possessed with an "incredible, impossible charm."
Covering 17 sprawling acres on Pincio Hill above the Piazza di
Spagna, they offer our favorite panoramic view of Rome. In the 1st
century B.C., the site was covered by the Gardens of Lucullus.
With their tree-lined avenues, statues, and fountains, these
gardens were built around the severe, fortress-like facade of the
Villa dei Medici in 1540. The Medici grand dukes acquired them in
1580. When Galileo was under house arrest by the Inquisition (1630-33),
the dukes offered him
shelter
here.
In 1801, Napoleon purchased the villa to make it the seat of the French Academy. Prix de Rome scholars studying art, architecture, and archaeology. In front of the villa is a round fountain with a wide basin. Its spout was made from a cannonball shot from Castel
Sant'Angelo. The gardens
-- not the villa itself -- can be visited only on
Saturday and Sunday 
tours at
10:30am and again at 11:30am. The cost of a tour is 6.50€ ($7.80)
per person (Metro: Spagna). It is open all year.
Villa Borghese
The park is located north of the
Spanish Steps and the main entrances can be
found at the Piazza del Popolo and the Porta Pinciana at the end
of the Via Veneto. The Borghese park is a pleasant refuge from
the hectic streets in Rome. The area started as a vineyard in the
16th century. In 1605 cardinal Scipione Borghese, a nephew of
Pope Paul V, turned the vineyard into a park. The landscaper
Domenico Savino da Montepulciano designed a very formal park with
geometric shapes, the first such 
park in Rome. A villa was built by the
architect Flaminio Ponzio after a sketch from the cardinal
himself. At the end of the 18th century an artificial lake was
made in the middle of the park. On the island in the lake, a
small Ionic temple was built. It is dedicated to Aesculapius, the
God of healing.
In 1903 the city of Rome obtained the Villa Borghese from the Borghese family and the park was opened to the public.
PRESS 
tours, tastes and tutors
Locanda delle rose di Hunt Michael David & C S.S, San Bartolomeo 24, Ponticelli, 06062, Citta Della Pieve, PG. PIVA 02876300548 RI di PG REA 247348 Tele:0578248021