Green Fingers and Good Dirt: Inspiration From Italy

In April 2013, my husband and I took a trip to Tuscany and after a four days in Florence, we drove south to Cortona, a beautiful old walled town I had previously visited with one of our daughters. The Relais Borgo San Pietro, a gorgeous converted farmhouse, became our base for the next week as we drove around the countryside, exploring the old walled towns and their wine, food, sights, sounds, gardens and wonderful hospitality. Being early in the season was a bonus for us as most of them were empty of tourists (at this point in my life and the ways in which we have travelled around the globe, I like to think of ourselves as travellers, rather than tourists. Tourists to me go for the main sights, travellers tend to 'drink in the atmosphere' and look for the unusual rather than the known. We have always been happiest spending our time in small villages drinking and eating with the locals and watching the world go by than ticking off the big name sights). Having said this, we were in Tuscany, definitely a tourist mecca!!


Relais Borgo San Pietro, Cortona

As this is a gardening blog, I really just wanted to share some of the beautiful scenes that resonated with us, whether there were vegetables involved or not, as long as it was flora, it was okay! Trying to sort photos, I realised that it would be easier if I put them into categories....so here goes........

Into the Wild

Stunning colours by an old farmhouse close to Fiesole

Poppies were everywhere

The picture above was taken one day when we drove north-east into Umbria and our GPS map told us there were roads where there were none and villages where there were just hamlets that looked like they were out of the dark ages (and the people too!). We ended up far off the beaten track in what I can only describe as cold, creepy, 'Deliverance' country. Getting out was no small feat and our car morphed into a 4 wheel drive (out of sheer necessity). I was never so glad to see hills like this as we suddenly struck familiar looking surrounds and people who actually smiled!

More roadside beauty

The road into a friend's restored 18th century farmhouse half an hour from Siena

Fields of gold, green and red

Explosions of Colour

I don't know what this is, but it had the most glorious blooms.

Gorgeous blossoms at Bagno Vignoni

Couldn't resist using both of the photos above, the first of wisteria in San Gimignano and the second in Cortona.

A side street in Cortona

Blossoms outside our rooms at the Relais Borgo San Pietro

The stone walled entrance to a small hamlet we stumbled upon

Climbing roses at 16th Century Villa Della Petraia, outside Florence

Almost every doorway in the old hilltop villages, had stunning flower displays

More blooms at Villa Della Petraia

And again, a single azalea at the same villa

Secret Gardens

A garden in San Gimignano, invisible from the cobbled streets

And another

The delightful village of Bagno Vignoni, whose thermal waters have been used since Roman times. They also serve the best pannacotta we've ever tasted at the Osteria del Leone! See photo below!