0:00:07 > 0:00:10I'm on the second leg of my trip around Italy,
0:00:10 > 0:00:14exploring the country's loveliest and most influential gardens
0:00:14 > 0:00:21and the ideas, landscape and history that shaped them.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29I began my journey with the grand gardens of Rome, made by cardinals vying for the papacy.
0:00:29 > 0:00:35I'm heading south to Naples, where the sun has inspired gardens of poetry and romance.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39Ah, that's just lovely.
0:00:39 > 0:00:44And right up to the north of the country, where the gardens are magnificently dramatic.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48I am actually genuinely lost.
0:00:48 > 0:00:55This time I'm in Florence, where the creative flowering we now know as the Renaissance
0:00:55 > 0:01:01promoted for the first time in modern history the idea that a garden could be a work of art.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06In every direction, you see balance, order and harmony.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12I'll be visiting both public and private gardens
0:01:12 > 0:01:19in order to find out what it is about them that still has such a powerful resonance with us today.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24It does feel like the most extraordinary, dramatic gesture to have at the bottom of the garden.
0:01:24 > 0:01:30I'll also discover how British and American garden makers reinvented Renaissance gardens
0:01:30 > 0:01:36at the beginning of the 20th century, spreading the myth that they were always a flower free zone.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40It's all the same colour and yet building this symphony of green.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59In the 15th century, the Tuscan city state of Florence
0:01:59 > 0:02:02became the artistic and intellectual centre of the Renaissance,
0:02:02 > 0:02:06which was a profound artistic and cultural revolution,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10that over two centuries, took medieval Europe into the modern era.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14Florentine artists like Botticelli, Michelangelo and Leonardo,
0:02:14 > 0:02:16and architects such as Brunelleschi and Vasari,
0:02:16 > 0:02:22produced some of the most glorious art and architecture the world has ever seen.
0:02:23 > 0:02:29The Renaissance also developed the concept that had lain dormant since classical times, that a garden,
0:02:29 > 0:02:36just as much as a painting or a piece of sculpture, could also be a profound artistic expression.
0:02:36 > 0:02:42In the 15th century, there was this extraordinary flowering of art and science and literature,
0:02:42 > 0:02:48and from that came this idea that gardens could be places that were beautiful in their own right,
0:02:48 > 0:02:52that expressed power and pleasure as well as just utilitarianism.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56And it does seem to me extraordinary that 500 years later,
0:02:56 > 0:03:03we're still finding those gardens have something in them that is deeply attractive to us.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05And if you want to discover what that is
0:03:05 > 0:03:11and what Renaissance gardens were all about, then you need to come here to Florence.
0:03:20 > 0:03:26The gardens in and around Florence are among the most beautiful anywhere in the world.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Whilst they were all created as works of art, they were also
0:03:35 > 0:03:40deliberate expressions of power, wealth and learning.
0:03:41 > 0:03:46The gardens made during this period inspired a 20th century Renaissance revival.
0:03:46 > 0:03:53It was taken up enthusiastically by the ex-pat community in Florence and then by the rest of the world.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10The Renaissance, which was a new synthesis of literature,
0:04:10 > 0:04:17art, science and philosophy, was nurtured and financed by Florence's ruling banking dynasty, the Medici.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23The development of the printing press led to the spread of ancient text,
0:04:23 > 0:04:30that in turn inspired artists and philosophers with ideas rediscovered from ancient Greece and Rome.
0:04:30 > 0:04:35At the same time, the Medici were growing ever richer as the Pope's banker,
0:04:35 > 0:04:42and they fostered a creative home for the greatest artists, thinkers and architects of the day.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50I'm heading now to the outskirts of Florence
0:04:50 > 0:04:53and the earliest surviving Medici garden, Villa Castello.
0:04:59 > 0:05:05The garden of Villa Castello was begun in 1537 in the later or high Renaissance,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08and has been restored to pretty much its original condition.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27The thing that strikes you immediately when you walk in is the symmetry.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33Everything is balanced. Whatever happens on one side is picked up on the other side.
0:05:33 > 0:05:41The result is harmonious, and you can feel it, you can feel this sense of lightness, of generosity
0:05:41 > 0:05:47that is completely prepared and ordered and laid out.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52And you might think that that would be dull and predictable, but actually, it's not.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16Villa Castello was the home of Cosimo de Medici, who became head of state
0:06:16 > 0:06:20after the murder of his relation Alessandro at the age of just 17.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Cosimo was an austere and ruthless man,
0:06:23 > 0:06:28but under his rule, the glory of the Medicis in Florence reached new heights.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33However, in 1537, he was hardly more than a boy
0:06:33 > 0:06:36and Florence was in a state of turmoil.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40Yet one of his first acts was to commission these magnificent gardens,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43attached then to a relatively modest villa.
0:06:43 > 0:06:49To understand why Cosimo would stake so much on a garden, I met Giorgio Galetti,
0:06:49 > 0:06:54a Renaissance expert who oversaw the superb restoration of these gardens.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59Why was this garden made at that time, what was the impetus to do it?
0:06:59 > 0:07:03You have to think that these had also a symbolic meaning.
0:07:03 > 0:07:08The layout is a kind of symbol of this new order,
0:07:08 > 0:07:15after 30 years of confusion, of fights, of bad economic conditions.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19They call it buon governo, this good government.
0:07:19 > 0:07:24The Medici really are the only one who can provide prosperity
0:07:24 > 0:07:27and happiness to Tuscany.
0:07:27 > 0:07:32In what way does it exemplify the high Renaissance garden?
0:07:32 > 0:07:37I think the layout, it was divided in 16 compartments,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40in perfect geometric shape.
0:07:40 > 0:07:47It was a demonstration of perfect control, of man, of space and nature.
0:07:47 > 0:07:53And also it was the first time that an axis is used.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56From the grotto to the villa, there are two fountains.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00The main perspective, this was something new.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10So Cosimo commissioned the sculptor Niccolo Tribolo
0:08:10 > 0:08:14to make a garden that would be a display of his sophistication
0:08:14 > 0:08:18and power, that he could then show to visiting rulers and ambassadors
0:08:18 > 0:08:23as a clear demonstration of his wise and strong government.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26This aspect of a garden being deliberately intended as a parade of
0:08:26 > 0:08:31cultural power was a development new to the high Renaissance.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36But the layout and the way the design maximises the views of the surrounding countryside
0:08:36 > 0:08:40are based upon well established precedents of garden design.
0:08:40 > 0:08:45The garden didn't come out of nothing. It was following a set of rules
0:08:45 > 0:08:47that were best expressed by a man called Alberti.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Now, he was a philosopher and a theorist,
0:08:50 > 0:08:54and he said quite specifically that gardens should have certain features.
0:08:54 > 0:08:59There should be paths of symmetry. There should be flowing streams, there should be trees planted,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and they should be planted in the form of a quincunx.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07A quincunx is where you have - and I can show you this really easier than telling you -
0:09:07 > 0:09:13is where you have your trees planted in a row like that and then you have another matching set.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18Then you plant one in the middle. What it means is,
0:09:18 > 0:09:23as your pattern builds up, like that, you have that direction,
0:09:23 > 0:09:28you can have them in this direction, you can have them in that direction.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32You can see this clearly here, so down there, you can see a line of trees,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36along here you can see a line of trees, along this axis, there's a line of trees.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40The whole point of that is in every direction,
0:09:40 > 0:09:44you see balance, order and harmony.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59Renaissance thinkers were exploring classical scientific principles,
0:09:59 > 0:10:03and one of the beliefs was that God created the world along mathematical lines.
0:10:03 > 0:10:09Thus, the symmetry of Castello's layout was a deliberate echo of the universe's own ordered design.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14One of the great discoveries of the Renaissance
0:10:14 > 0:10:19were the rules of perspective, where you have a vanishing point where two parallel lines meet.
0:10:19 > 0:10:27And of course, where two lines meet at a viewpoint, at a sculpture or a niche,
0:10:27 > 0:10:31then that draws you to it, and it's as though they're relishing this new discovery.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35That sums up the whole Renaissance spirit, because you have science,
0:10:35 > 0:10:42you have mathematics, you have art and you have humanity, the human point of view, all working together.
0:10:49 > 0:10:55There is a modern assumption that the Italian gardens of the Renaissance
0:10:55 > 0:10:57were dominated by a single colour - green.
0:10:57 > 0:11:03Yet Castello is, and was from the very first, full of flowers.
0:11:03 > 0:11:10But when Giorgio Galetti started the restoration work, nearly all the original plants were long dead,
0:11:10 > 0:11:15so he had to do a great deal of detective work to find out what grew here 500 years ago.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20From my research I realised
0:11:20 > 0:11:24that in the parterre there were dwarf fruit trees,
0:11:24 > 0:11:29and we start to introduce these dwarf fruit trees.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33And also there were flowers, and particularly beschels,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37because they could flower in summer.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41The picture you're painting is much more complex and interesting, really.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46There were more than 600 bushes of roses. Jasmine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was collected here.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51So this idea that Italian gardens are just green,
0:11:51 > 0:11:54with statues and water features,
0:11:54 > 0:12:00is at best incomplete and actually a myth, really.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Yes. It's a stereotype. Yeah.
0:12:09 > 0:12:15So it just isn't true that Renaissance gardens were simply a formal green geometry.
0:12:15 > 0:12:21Villa Castello, like every other Italian garden of the period, was richly floriferous.
0:12:21 > 0:12:27And with the discovery of new worlds, new species were starting to come into Italy,
0:12:27 > 0:12:32instigating a great resurgence in the science of botany.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35Giorgio has found letters from Cosimo
0:12:35 > 0:12:42revealing his own personal passion for roses, jasmine and citrus.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46In fact, some of the 130 different varieties of citrus in
0:12:46 > 0:12:51today's garden were propagated from Cosimo's original plants.
0:12:52 > 0:12:58Here's a man not just with the money and the power to collect interesting, expensive things,
0:12:58 > 0:13:04but a learned man, applying that knowledge to botanical and horticultural affairs.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08I think that's really telling about the whole Renaissance spirit.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13Every account of Cosimo describes him
0:13:13 > 0:13:18as an exceptionally remote figure with a penchant for extreme violence.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22But the respect he demanded as a ruler
0:13:22 > 0:13:27depended as much on the evidence of his learning and culture as his ruthlessness.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30To this extent, the garden was all part of his control of the state.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33When a visitor came up here into the grotto,
0:13:33 > 0:13:38the first thing they would've appreciated was the cool running water everywhere.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43Water in these basins, and from the floor and running down the walls.
0:13:43 > 0:13:50But they would also have seen these animals, the extraordinary, great menagerie of animals.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53So you have here things like the dromedary, which refers back to
0:13:53 > 0:13:59Lorenzo the Magnificent, who was given one by the King of Egypt.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03You have the goat, because Cosimo's star sign was Capricorn.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10Up here there's a rhinoceros, and that refers to Alessandro.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12Cosimo's predecessor was a tyrant.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16And this is all about Medici power,
0:14:16 > 0:14:20some of it positive, some of it benign, but power.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27The garden of Villa Castello was one of the first and most influential of
0:14:27 > 0:14:32the great wave of Italian garden building that took place in the second half of the 16th century.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36Its superb restoration means that it's the nearest thing to
0:14:36 > 0:14:41a true Renaissance garden that exists in Italy today.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43When I first came to the garden,
0:14:43 > 0:14:50I thought it would be formal and symmetrical, but perhaps a little bit austere,
0:14:50 > 0:14:54and even empty in places, and it absolutely is not like that at all.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58That very interesting point that Giorgio made,
0:14:58 > 0:15:04that it's a myth that Italian gardens didn't have flowers in it.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08This garden would certainly have had plants of every kind.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11In fact, if you want to see a Renaissance garden
0:15:11 > 0:15:14as near to the real thing as you possibly could, then this is it.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25Castello was the first garden Cosimo made, but not the last.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29Whereas that had been a private show of his public power,
0:15:29 > 0:15:31in 1550, when he was still just 29,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35work began on a garden that would dwarf Castello,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39which was to be a much more public display of his private passions.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46Whilst work was still underway at Castello, Cosimo started another garden.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50This time it was right in the middle of Florence, it was much bigger,
0:15:50 > 0:15:55and it was different in a number of ways, not least in that it was intended from the outset
0:15:55 > 0:15:59to house and display his huge collection of sculpture.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03The traditional seat of Florentine rulers was the Palazzo Vecchio, in the centre of the city.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08But in 1549, Cosimo's wife, Eleanor of Toledo, bought the Pitti Palace,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12just across the river, and rebuilt it on an enormous scale.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16It's not normally open to the public, but I've been given special permission
0:16:16 > 0:16:19to take the elevated corridor that Cosimo had made
0:16:19 > 0:16:24in 1564, linking the Pitti Palace to the newly built Uffizi,
0:16:24 > 0:16:30just so he could walk privately across the river secure from, and unseen by,
0:16:30 > 0:16:35the jostling crowds on the bridge below.
0:16:39 > 0:16:44Today, the walls are lined with the Medici family's private collection
0:16:44 > 0:16:49of self portraits by some of the world's most renowned artists.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54To just walk along and just see a Rembrandt,
0:16:54 > 0:16:59Rembrandt in old age, that's worth coming here just to see that.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04At the end of the corridor, a door opens
0:17:04 > 0:17:10into the most ambitious of all the Medici homes, the Boboli gardens.
0:17:23 > 0:17:28Throughout the medieval period, sculpture had been primarily displayed in churches.
0:17:28 > 0:17:34But now, as Renaissance artists drew inspiration from classical statues that openly relished the human form,
0:17:34 > 0:17:40sculpture began to be displayed in Florence's gardens and piazzas.
0:17:40 > 0:17:46One of the most opulent displays of sculpture in the Boboli gardens is the grotto,
0:17:46 > 0:17:54designed in 1582 by the Florentine architect, Bernardo Buontalenti, for Cosimo's son, Francesco.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00In its heyday, the grotto's marble sculptures and walls of volcanic rock,
0:18:00 > 0:18:07shells and quartz would've shimmered beneath cascades and jets of water.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14In the corners are these four sculptures. Now these are concrete cast, but until the 1920s,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18they were the originals, and they're by Michelangelo. The Slaves.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23I remember being taught about these extraordinary sculptures that showed the slave
0:18:23 > 0:18:29trying to break free from the stone that they're imprisoned in, and then much later they came here as a gift.
0:18:29 > 0:18:34Of course, Michelangelo, one of the greatest figures in the history of art
0:18:34 > 0:18:40and of the Renaissance and of the Medici family. So it's all here in the one place.
0:18:43 > 0:18:50The Boboli Gardens continued to be made and remade for over two centuries,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54getting ever bigger and grander until eventually, it covered 111 acres.
0:18:54 > 0:18:59Initially, the steep, rocky land behind the palace was levelled
0:18:59 > 0:19:06to make an open, grassy space flanked by trees, where Cosimo could indulge his mania for hunting.
0:19:06 > 0:19:13Then, some 50 years after his death, his descendants took this modest amphitheatre and enlarged it hugely
0:19:13 > 0:19:16to accommodate the new, theatrical, baroque fashion.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23There was a mania for performance of any kind -
0:19:23 > 0:19:29pageants, burlesque, masque, and the bigger the better, because it meant that you had lots of money to spend.
0:19:29 > 0:19:35They cost a fortune and they would build volcanoes that exploded, and have wild animals.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39They flooded an area at one time and had a battle with boats.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44It was a kind of elaborate theatre to entertain your guests, who would sit around
0:19:44 > 0:19:48and they would take in the space, and the garden became the setting
0:19:48 > 0:19:51for the most dramatic performance possible.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12'I met the director of the city's museums, Cristina Acidini,
0:20:12 > 0:20:16'to find out more about Boboli's grand masques and pageants.'
0:20:18 > 0:20:25It does seem that there was a big change in style, when Cosimo went from Castello to Boboli.
0:20:25 > 0:20:32- What instigated that? - The garden is more and more the setting of public events.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37They were recorded, admired and spoken about all over Europe.
0:20:37 > 0:20:43We have wonderful statements from the Venetian ambassadors
0:20:43 > 0:20:50that were very careful and exact in their reports, and they were describing magnificent festivals.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54Was this a new development, that gardens could tell these stories?
0:20:54 > 0:21:01Yes, it is a significant watershed in the history of gardening.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03There were political meanings in them.
0:21:03 > 0:21:09The gardens are part of a propaganda expanded programme.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12What instigated that? What prompted it?
0:21:12 > 0:21:17The Medici, and especially Cosimo, were the rulers of Florence,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20and they were keeping peace, thanks to their power.
0:21:20 > 0:21:26So, people should support power and in return, they get peace?
0:21:26 > 0:21:30Yes, more or less, that's the meaning, the deep meaning of it.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39So, the grand pageants were displays of Medici power
0:21:39 > 0:21:44with the clear message that power equals peace and economic stability for the people of Florence,
0:21:44 > 0:21:49but only if they fell in line behind Medici rule.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58Boboli was private until the 19th century, when it was opened to the public.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02But some parts are still out of bounds, like the Isolotto,
0:22:02 > 0:22:07an oval island made in the 1620s, surrounded by a broad moat.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13The public aren't allowed on this island,
0:22:13 > 0:22:15but I've been let in as a treat.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21It's clearly seen better days, but it's still rather wonderful.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24It had a different origin completely. It was a rabbit island.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27You keep rabbits and chickens on the island
0:22:27 > 0:22:30and perhaps an aviary as well, and it would be protected by a moat,
0:22:30 > 0:22:36and in that you'd have fish, so you had plenty of dinner stored at the bottom of the garden.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40And then when they bought the obelisk and put that in the amphitheatre,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43they moved this, so this is the original decoration.
0:22:43 > 0:22:49You can see the enormity of the scale would've fitted into that space.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52Here, well... here, it's very strange, isn't it?
0:22:52 > 0:22:56I tell you what I like about this. It does feel like the most
0:22:56 > 0:22:59extraordinary, dramatic gesture to have at the bottom of the garden.
0:22:59 > 0:23:06Bit scrappy, feels a bit unloved, but it is an amazing piece of garden theatre.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19The Medici dynasty ruled Florence for more than three centuries
0:23:19 > 0:23:23and were the greatest patrons of the Renaissance. They'd also been instrumental
0:23:23 > 0:23:28in establishing the concept that a garden could be a work of art
0:23:28 > 0:23:33as well as playing an important role in confirming their wealth and power.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50I'm off to a shop in the back streets
0:23:50 > 0:23:55to sample one of the more unlikely spin-offs from Boboli Garden's grand grotto.
0:23:58 > 0:24:05As well as designing the grotto, Bernardo Buontalenti built the Medici ice houses,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07where ice for chilling food was stored.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12And according to Florentine legend, when he experimentally chilled a cream-based dessert,
0:24:12 > 0:24:17he invented ice cream, to the subsequent delight of the grateful world.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26Now, this is the original ice cream, isn't it, that was made by the Medici?
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Yes. Bernardo Buontalenti.
0:24:29 > 0:24:35- What are the ingredients? - Cream, milk, honey, sugar, spices.
0:24:35 > 0:24:41- Can I have a taste of it?- Of course, yes.- And that will take me back to that first ice cream.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Thank you.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48- It's very good. It's very custardy, isn't it?- Yes.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52Can I have a little container of it, please? Thank you.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57- Thank you.- You're welcome.
0:25:11 > 0:25:17The next stage of my journey will take me and the Renaissance rule book right into the 20th century.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23Of course, now, with the benefit of hindsight, we can say that by 1600,
0:25:23 > 0:25:30the Renaissance had evolved into something much more theatrical, that typified the baroque.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33However, the values of order and elegance remained,
0:25:33 > 0:25:40and in one garden in particular, this combination was to prove enormously influential.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48Settignano is a village in the hills overlooking Florence,
0:25:48 > 0:25:52famed for its stone cutters and where Michelangelo grew up.
0:25:52 > 0:25:58It's also home to a small private garden called Villa Gamberaia.
0:26:11 > 0:26:18Gamberaia is a three-acre garden built on top of a ridge by Andrea di Lapi,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23a wealthy silk merchant, between 1619 and 1680.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27Although it's creation came 150 years after Alberti wrote his Renaissance garden formula
0:26:27 > 0:26:35and is very much a baroque garden, Gamberaia still holds true to Alberti's basic rules of order,
0:26:35 > 0:26:40symmetry and a clear relationship with the Tuscan landscape around it.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47Running the whole length of one side of the garden is the bowling green.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52One end is a nymphaeum, and 300 full and perfectly flat green yards distant,
0:26:52 > 0:26:56a pine fringe balustraded view over the Tuscan countryside.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01I think this bowling green is one of the great pieces of garden design.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06Apart from anything else, it's an outrageously ambitious thing to do. This enormous great length
0:27:06 > 0:27:10made out of grass in a climate where you can't really grow grass, so they've had
0:27:10 > 0:27:15to bring in water especially for it, and then building these walls,
0:27:15 > 0:27:19some of which are retaining walls, because they slice into the hillside,
0:27:19 > 0:27:25so that the whole thing is monumental in scale in a relatively small garden.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28And yet it doesn't upset the balance of the garden.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42Gamberaia was admired from its creation, but it was only at the turn of the 20th century
0:27:42 > 0:27:47that it would come to act as a kind of muse to a new generation of garden designers
0:27:47 > 0:27:51as the idealised version of what a Tuscan villa might be.
0:27:56 > 0:28:02In 1896, Villa Gamberaia was bought by a Romanian princess,
0:28:02 > 0:28:06the exotic and reclusive Princess Ghyka,
0:28:06 > 0:28:11who settled here with an American woman, rumoured to be her lover.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15She married this Albanian prince, who was a bit of an adventurer
0:28:15 > 0:28:19and certainly never appeared here at Gamberaia.
0:28:19 > 0:28:25Princess Ghyka's affections were directed towards her female companion,
0:28:25 > 0:28:28who was wonderfully called Florence Blood.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32Princess Ghyka apparently was a great beauty, but her looks went
0:28:32 > 0:28:37and she never appeared in public without a veil. In fact, she hardly ever appeared in public at all.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40People would just get glimpses of her through the window,
0:28:40 > 0:28:44but the one thing she was was obsessed by this garden.
0:28:44 > 0:28:50By the end of the 19th century, the formal parterre had become a vegetable plot,
0:28:50 > 0:28:55and the princess embarked on a major restoration and remodelling of the garden.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00To get an idea of the extent of her impact, I met up with Mario Bevilacqua,
0:29:00 > 0:29:05professor of architecture at the University of Florence and an expert on the garden's history.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08This map is what we call a cabreo.
0:29:08 > 0:29:14The land survey of the Gamberaia can be dated to the beginning of the 18th century.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19It's a very important document, because it gives a true representation
0:29:19 > 0:29:23of what the property looked like - the agricultural fields,
0:29:23 > 0:29:28and the gardens, layout of the gardens and the villa itself.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32Were people concerned that she was going to ruin a historical...?
0:29:32 > 0:29:35Absolutely not. She was not ruining anything.
0:29:35 > 0:29:40She was enhancing the property and she was restoring it to its former beauty.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44She knew how it was, but then, she want to recreate something
0:29:44 > 0:29:52which could convey a stronger idea of an idealised Italian formal garden.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56And this is what she did out here?
0:29:59 > 0:30:03'From the loggia, the garden is laid out perfectly below us.'
0:30:13 > 0:30:17Princess Ghyka kept the symmetry of the original 17th century layout,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20but replaced the ornate box broderie pattern with four pools,
0:30:20 > 0:30:26and the Isolotto at the end with a green theatre, completely transforming the garden.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31She is said to have swum in the pools, but only at night, safe from prying eyes.
0:30:39 > 0:30:46She decided not to obliterate the original pattern of the garden.
0:30:46 > 0:30:54She decided to enhance it and create a new garden, which reflect the Renaissance and early baroque period.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58She had new trees planted, the theatre at the end,
0:30:58 > 0:31:03and she changed the four parquets into water parquets,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07which is a very original feature, and she designed it herself.
0:31:07 > 0:31:13What I feel is that there are lots of villas and they're beautiful, but what is it about Gamberaia?
0:31:13 > 0:31:17There is a kind of balance and magic.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20- It's very hard to define about this place.- You are right.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23It is almost the perfect villa, isn't it?
0:31:23 > 0:31:26- The idea of perfect. - The idea of a perfect villa, yes.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Gamberaia may seem very simple.
0:31:29 > 0:31:32Actually, its structure is very complex.
0:31:32 > 0:31:37And there's a double axis, which is very interesting.
0:31:37 > 0:31:43You've got the open countryside this way. You've got the Cupola and historic Florence down there.
0:31:43 > 0:31:50The idea of this garden which floats on the city and in the countryside.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58The princess's garden is quite complex
0:31:58 > 0:32:04and with the box and the layers and the interweaving of it, that's very attractive.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08But it is quite difficult to read from a ground level.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11Certainly, from the other end, you don't really see the water.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16There's no narrative in the layout. You don't quite know where to go or where it's going to take you
0:32:16 > 0:32:20and when you make your way, there doesn't seem to be a logic.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24Of course, as soon as you get up to the loggia and look down, it's as clear as day.
0:32:37 > 0:32:42Although Gamberaia is a garden that has accumulated and changed over 300 years,
0:32:42 > 0:32:46the essence of it is straight out of the Renaissance garden rule book.
0:32:46 > 0:32:53And Gamberaia showed that these ideas could work on a relatively modest, accessible scale.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58Visitors could see this and apply its principles to their own gardens.
0:32:58 > 0:33:04Gamberaia became famous all over the world, but especially the British Isles and America.
0:33:04 > 0:33:12Architects came here and started the Gamberaia, along with the great Renaissance villas around Rome.
0:33:12 > 0:33:17It seems that that reputation has endured and it's lasted right up to the present day.
0:33:17 > 0:33:23Also because it wasn't so grand, so imposing, and so it could well
0:33:23 > 0:33:28be adapted to higher middle class, used as a model.
0:33:28 > 0:33:30- It's what we would call aspirational.- Yes.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32People could aspire to it.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43The combination of the garden's beauty
0:33:43 > 0:33:46with its formality and elegance, as well as
0:33:46 > 0:33:49its relative accessibility from Florence,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52meant that gardeners and designers were drawn to it like a magnet.
0:33:52 > 0:33:58And the mysterious and lurid tales of Princess Ghyka only added to the attraction.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06There's no doubt that this garden sparked a revival
0:34:06 > 0:34:10in Renaissance gardening, particularly the idea of the Renaissance garden,
0:34:10 > 0:34:15and then combined with the allure of the Princess and her lover,
0:34:15 > 0:34:19Gamberaia became something of a cult, and was regarded
0:34:19 > 0:34:24at the turn of the 20th century as the perfect villa and garden.
0:34:35 > 0:34:41By the end of the 19th century, there was a large ex-pat community living in Florence.
0:34:41 > 0:34:45Drawn by its incredible artistic and architectural treasures, and not least
0:34:45 > 0:34:52by the much cheaper cost of living, with wonderful Renaissance villas to be rented or bought for a pittance.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58They never even needed to learn to speak Italian either, because by 1900,
0:34:58 > 0:35:03it was reckoned that one sixth of the Florentine population was English-speaking.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10There was also another attraction that drew some to Florence.
0:35:10 > 0:35:16There was a big influx of Americans and British people and they came here for a number of reasons.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20The weather, the Renaissance, the art, the history, it was cheap.
0:35:20 > 0:35:25But there was also another powerful pull, which was sexual freedom.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28When people came here, they felt they had a licence to behave
0:35:28 > 0:35:30in a way that they just couldn't do back at home.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42With its relaxed attitude to extramarital affairs and homosexuality,
0:35:42 > 0:35:48Florence offered an escape from the bunged-up Victorian values.
0:35:48 > 0:35:53And its gardens soon became the backdrop for the affairs and intrigues of the ex-pat set.
0:35:55 > 0:36:01Around the corner from Villa Gamberaia in Settignano, I'm off to visit one such garden.
0:36:01 > 0:36:06It was once the hub of this libertine Anglo-American community,
0:36:06 > 0:36:12and also the place where the 20th century neo-Renaissance garden was conceived and created.
0:36:15 > 0:36:20I'm excited to be visiting this garden at all, because it's not open to the public
0:36:20 > 0:36:24and Harvard University, who own it, were a bit wary about letting me in.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29Anyway, they've relented. It's called I Tatti and it was designed by an Englishman
0:36:29 > 0:36:35called Cecil Pinsent 100 years ago, For a long time, it formed the basis
0:36:35 > 0:36:39of what most people thought an Italian garden should look like.
0:36:47 > 0:36:52In 1900, an American couple, Bernard Berenson, an art historian
0:36:52 > 0:36:58specialising in the Renaissance, and his wife Mary, rented I Tatti.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02Later, they bought it and began to make substantial alterations.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06Mary Berenson commissioned two 23-year-old Englishmen to work on the house
0:37:06 > 0:37:10and to create a new garden from the villa's old vineyards.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13They were the newly qualified architect, Cecil Pinsent,
0:37:13 > 0:37:18and her husband's secretary, Geoffrey Scott, with whom Mary was having an affair.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24This was a ruse by Mary to keep Geoffrey Scott around,
0:37:24 > 0:37:28and Berenson tolerated this, but he actively nurtured Pinsent,
0:37:28 > 0:37:34and as a Renaissance specialist, sent him to visit formal gardens around Florence for inspiration,
0:37:34 > 0:37:36including the nearby Villa Gamberaia.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43All the pictures I've seen of I Tatti have been the garden spread out.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45I didn't realise you came through a doorway.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49And immediately, you can see why people thought that
0:37:49 > 0:37:54Renaissance gardens were just green, because that is just solid green.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57There is no other colour through this doorway at all.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16But what strikes me immediately is that,
0:38:16 > 0:38:22where in a Renaissance or baroque parterre, you look down, it's rather two-dimensional.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Here, Pinsent has used uprights.
0:38:26 > 0:38:32There are verticals everywhere, and what that creates are boxes of space.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35And I don't know why, but that's very satisfying.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37It's always a good thing in a garden.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39And very rare to see it just in one colour.
0:38:50 > 0:38:55Although I can see the influence of his British contemporaries,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58Pinsent has made a garden that clearly uses
0:38:58 > 0:39:02the idioms and structures of Renaissance and baroque gardens.
0:39:02 > 0:39:08Central axis, absolute symmetry, green parterres and a bosco beyond.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12It is astonishing that he was a complete novice,
0:39:12 > 0:39:18and yet he's made the garden into multi-faceted architecture.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22He's ruthlessly excluded all colour except green.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25And the result is surprisingly modern and contemporary
0:39:25 > 0:39:29for a garden that was overtly inspired by the Renaissance.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36Despite all this green, there's a lot going on.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40It's really complex and once you walk into the garden,
0:39:40 > 0:39:44it's got real substance. And I love this bit over there,
0:39:44 > 0:39:49because he's created this texture and architectural shape just using green.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53There's a wall behind that hedge, so he's planted a hedge on top of a wall
0:39:53 > 0:39:57and then a hedge in front of a wall. Now obviously the wall blocks your view and holds up the landscape
0:39:57 > 0:40:02so you don't need the hedge. But by planting them there,
0:40:02 > 0:40:06he's created this structure, this building made out of green,
0:40:06 > 0:40:12so it's got a kind of energy, which is exciting, actually. It feels like something's happening.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25Giorgio Galetti's research at Villa Castello has shown
0:40:25 > 0:40:29that Renaissance gardens were, in fact, filled with colour.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33So why did Pinsent choose such a restricted palette?
0:40:33 > 0:40:37The historian Alan Grieco is assistant director at I Tatti.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41This was Pinsent's first commission.
0:40:41 > 0:40:47He's not even 25 years old when he design. He doesn't have that much experience.
0:40:47 > 0:40:52He's coming from a totally different tradition, because the few sketches that we have,
0:40:52 > 0:40:56we know that he was very interested in very informal gardens.
0:40:56 > 0:41:02And clearly, coming to Italy, he suddenly discovers this whole world of the formal Italian garden.
0:41:02 > 0:41:07It is extraordinary when you think about it. Here we have a man who is not yet 25,
0:41:07 > 0:41:12no experience, and yet he makes a garden that becomes internationally renowned.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15It's an amazing thing.
0:41:15 > 0:41:20One of the old gardeners who knew Pinsent said to me once,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24"Pinsent told me, 'I don't know anything about flowers, but any case,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27"'these gardens don't really need flowers.'"
0:41:27 > 0:41:29So I thought that was very emblematic.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33So when they visited Renaissance gardens,
0:41:33 > 0:41:38what they saw was basically what had survived of these gardens,
0:41:38 > 0:41:41and therefore, the hedges and the green part
0:41:41 > 0:41:46was much more likely to survive than any of the flowers,
0:41:46 > 0:41:51and I think that's where the idea comes from that it is very much of a green garden.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08What I do like about this severely monochromatic garden is
0:42:08 > 0:42:12you have these layers that build up to something very, very special.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15It starts with the grass and there's a little sound of that,
0:42:15 > 0:42:18and then that's built upon by the box hedges and
0:42:18 > 0:42:21different layers of those that interplay with each other.
0:42:21 > 0:42:26Behind that you have the Cypress hedge, clipped, but wanting to grow tall.
0:42:26 > 0:42:31Beyond that you have the Holm Oak hedge, a different green, and then, soaring up, you have the Cypresses,
0:42:31 > 0:42:37majestic, all the same colour and yet building this symphony of green.
0:42:50 > 0:42:56So the idea of the exclusively green Renaissance Italian garden
0:42:56 > 0:43:00was a misunderstanding by Edwardian garden makers, who took their cue
0:43:00 > 0:43:05from 400-year-old gardens that had simply lost their flowers over the centuries.
0:43:09 > 0:43:15It's become fashionable to criticise Pinsent for making a green garden, as though it was his personal fault
0:43:15 > 0:43:18for this misconception that Italian gardens,
0:43:18 > 0:43:23and Renaissance gardens in particular, were just composed of greenery.
0:43:23 > 0:43:28But actually, I think the fact that I Tatti is predominantly a green garden is its glory.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32If it had colours, it'd be spoilt. I love it for what it is.
0:43:41 > 0:43:46Pinsent and Scott had launched a new fashion for Renaissance style green gardens,
0:43:46 > 0:43:50but their partnership didn't last long. Scott ended his affair with Mary Berenson,
0:43:50 > 0:43:56and true to the spirit of the place, started another with Bernard Berenson's ex-lover.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00Having captured himself a rich wife, he then lost interest in garden making.
0:44:00 > 0:44:06But Pinsent flourished and went on to create some of the 20th century's finest gardens.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23Before heading off to see a very different Pinsent garden,
0:44:23 > 0:44:27I really wanted to visit a small garden made by an Italian.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29But astonishingly, I couldn't find one.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34However, judging by the abundance of flower pots on balconies and
0:44:34 > 0:44:39window boxes, Florentines clearly love flowers. So it was a puzzle.
0:44:39 > 0:44:46I headed off to one of the city's very few garden centres to see if I could find out more about this.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52Are there many people growing plants, making gardens,
0:44:52 > 0:44:56so they're nurturing them and making a garden with their hands?
0:44:56 > 0:44:58Is gardening popular?
0:45:29 > 0:45:32One thing, I see you sell seeds.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36Are people growing food, are they growing vegetables from seed?
0:45:43 > 0:45:47Here is another foreigner who will buy some seeds.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52- Misticanza.- Misticanza, OK.
0:45:52 > 0:45:53I'll get that.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56Very good.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02- Grazie.- Grazie, arrivederci, buongiorno.- Buongiorno.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05'Although Italians might not be a nation of gardeners -
0:46:05 > 0:46:09'don't grow much of their own fruit and veg - that doesn't mean
0:46:09 > 0:46:14'that they don't understand and appreciate it with a passion. The city's markets are full
0:46:14 > 0:46:17'of the most fabulous quality and range of produce.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20'And all of it is grown right here in Italy.'
0:46:23 > 0:46:26I'd be proud to grow these. Fantastic. What does it say?
0:46:26 > 0:46:29HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:46:29 > 0:46:33- From Italy, there's dried beans. - HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:46:33 > 0:46:36HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:46:36 > 0:46:39He's saying that they come from Tuscany.
0:46:39 > 0:46:45They have to by law put the area it's come from, which of course is from Italy, it's home grown.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55Italians really understand food and part of that understanding
0:46:55 > 0:46:59involves how it's grown, where it's grown, what the variety is, what season it is.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02These things are really the province of the gardener.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06The average British gardener relishes those facts,
0:47:06 > 0:47:10so they, if you like, get their gardening kick through what they eat,
0:47:10 > 0:47:14and you could argue that the British get their food kick through what they grow.
0:47:24 > 0:47:31Farming and locally produced produce has always been an important part of Tuscany's wealth and independence,
0:47:31 > 0:47:37but despite its panoramic beauty, it can be a tough and unyielding agricultural landscape.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43'I'm making a journey 80-odd miles south of Florence
0:47:43 > 0:47:47'to the particularly harsh countryside of the Val d'Orca.'
0:47:52 > 0:47:57This is the setting for Cecil Pinsent's last Italian garden, and one of his greatest,
0:47:57 > 0:48:03although it was created against the backdrop of the blackest period of modern Italian history.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10I've come a good two hours' drive south of Florence,
0:48:10 > 0:48:15and this area in particular was very poor when the garden was made.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17Pinsent had to work not just with the garden
0:48:17 > 0:48:22as a private, enclosed space, but connect it to the landscape all around.
0:48:47 > 0:48:52When the Anglo-American Iris Cutting married Marquese Antonio Origo
0:48:52 > 0:48:55in 1924, they left Florence to live
0:48:55 > 0:49:01in the huge but almost destitute estate of La Foce in Val d'Orca.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04The Origos set about renovating the impoverished tenant farms,
0:49:04 > 0:49:08with much help from the government's land improvement scheme.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11They also commissioned Cecil Pinsent, now 43,
0:49:11 > 0:49:17to design the house and garden as a sanctuary from the harshness of the landscape.
0:49:19 > 0:49:25Pinsent applied his signature green neo-Renaissance structure,
0:49:25 > 0:49:32but the flowers that Iris Origo loved were from the outset to be an important part of the garden.
0:49:35 > 0:49:40I love the way that Pinsent does simple things extremely well,
0:49:40 > 0:49:44and he obviously loves hedges and uses them brilliantly.
0:49:44 > 0:49:49So for example, this path has really unexpected but perfectly balanced proportions,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52so you have a five foot wide path, and a wall there,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56and then a one foot high hedge, which is as wide as the path.
0:49:56 > 0:50:02Which looks absolutely ordinary, but if you think about it, is really radical.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06And of course, the hedge is the backside of another hedge that goes down in front of the wall,
0:50:06 > 0:50:10so he's created these green spaces. But when you stand here and look out,
0:50:10 > 0:50:15you see what he's doing with all these hedges, because the site is very awkward.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18It slopes down in that direction and it slopes down in this direction,
0:50:18 > 0:50:23and he wants to take you out towards the landscape. To do that, he has to level the site.
0:50:23 > 0:50:28Instead of getting bulldozers out, he uses the hedge tops. They start thin and they go perfectly level
0:50:28 > 0:50:32and they drop down, then they level off. The net result is when you're standing in the garden,
0:50:32 > 0:50:36you feel balanced, you have the harmony of the Renaissance garden.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39You feel centred, and then you can enjoy it.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58Today, Iris's daughter Benedetta lives in the villa.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01She knew Cecil Pinsent when she was a small child
0:51:01 > 0:51:07and after a lifetime living with her garden, her respect for his design remains stronger than ever.
0:51:09 > 0:51:13Pinsent is credited with reviving
0:51:13 > 0:51:18the Renaissance garden in the 20th century and creating our concept of the Italian garden.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21How does this garden fit into that?
0:51:21 > 0:51:25I think it's so successful as a garden, just because it's a mixture.
0:51:25 > 0:51:32My mother was much more botanical, he was much more architectural.
0:51:32 > 0:51:38Also, Cecil had an extraordinary feel for nature, for the lie of the land itself.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41This house is oddly placed.
0:51:41 > 0:51:49But Cecil was not a person who would change the lie of the land. He would work with it.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53- So the garden is always related to the landscape?- Oh, yes, absolutely.
0:51:53 > 0:51:55Now, you knew Pinsent quite well, didn't you?
0:51:55 > 0:51:57I did, yes.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01He had a lovely, dry, very English sense of humour.
0:52:01 > 0:52:06Which you had to discover, because he was quite quiet, shy. Very tall.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09I remember him dressed in brown tweed,
0:52:09 > 0:52:13which is odd, because he came in the summer and he must've been awfully warm.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16- Oh, poor man, he must've been boiling!- Boiling.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33Much of this garden feels very familiar and I realised it's because it's essentially an English garden.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37You've got Pinsent, who's an Englishman, and Iris Origo,
0:52:37 > 0:52:41who was brought up essentially as an Englishwoman, albeit here in Italy.
0:52:41 > 0:52:48And what they've done is make an English garden that looks at its best in summer,
0:52:48 > 0:52:51but instead of summer being five days if you're lucky in July,
0:52:51 > 0:52:54it's at least five months of perfect weather.
0:52:59 > 0:53:04The garden has one last section that was made after the rest was completed.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08This is a large, cypress-lined triangle, which you look down on,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12descending grand stone steps to box hedges,
0:53:12 > 0:53:19and arrowing to the narrow end, along rather brutal lines, like blocks of troops at a rally.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26It's a clever piece of gardening, this.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30Because as you walk down through it, you have all those
0:53:30 > 0:53:35different lines of box, green lines, folding down towards the point.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40And that's Pinsent doing his green garden thing with supreme confidence.
0:53:40 > 0:53:46What it feels like here is 30 years later, there's someone at the height of his powers, great confidence,
0:53:46 > 0:53:51but there's a kind of brutality about it.
0:53:51 > 0:53:56What remains is impressive, but it's not charming.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10Throughout the 1930s, as Pinsent continued work on the garden,
0:54:10 > 0:54:14the politics of Europe and Italy were turning ugly.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25The land improvement scheme that had helped to restore the farmland around La Foce
0:54:25 > 0:54:30had been an initiative of Benito Mussolini's Fascist government,
0:54:30 > 0:54:33with the intention of making Italy self-sufficient in food.
0:54:33 > 0:54:39Now Mussolini started using Italy's great garden making heritage
0:54:39 > 0:54:43as a propaganda tool, mounting exhibitions and garden talks.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49And in a deliberate echo of the Medici era, in 1938,
0:54:49 > 0:54:56Mussolini staged a public pageant in the Boboli gardens to celebrate the visit of Hitler to Florence.
0:54:58 > 0:55:04The aim, of course, was to link Fascism with the country's glorious Renaissance history.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09The Fascists paraded the Italian garden,
0:55:09 > 0:55:13green and strong and forthright, and beautifully designed.
0:55:13 > 0:55:18And it was very influential, still is. Still, people think of Italian gardens like that.
0:55:18 > 0:55:23But what the Fascists overlooked were the Renaissance ideals of play
0:55:23 > 0:55:29and charm and decoration, and above all, of humanity.
0:55:41 > 0:55:47Funds from the Fascist government had helped to renovate the Origos' estate.
0:55:47 > 0:55:53But after war broke out in 1939, La Foce became a sanctuary for Allied forces,
0:55:53 > 0:55:58as the Origo family risked their lives sheltering escaped British and American prisoners of war,
0:55:58 > 0:56:00who were trying to make their way to safety.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04And Pinsent, who'd completed his garden
0:56:04 > 0:56:08only months before the outbreak of war, joined the British Army as an officer.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13Pinsent and La Foce survived the war.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16And today, Alberti's Renaissance ideals
0:56:16 > 0:56:21that underwrote his 20th century design are as relevant as ever.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31That view has become an icon for Tuscany, especially for those trying to sell it for holidaymakers.
0:56:31 > 0:56:37I've seen it at an airport, on a poster. But you hardly ever see tracks like that in Tuscany.
0:56:37 > 0:56:42The fields are big and open and it was made by Benedetta's father as a completely practical thing,
0:56:42 > 0:56:47so that as he improved the land, you could get vehicles up to the farms that lay beyond.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50And that was all of a piece of the way that La Foce was made.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53The garden, the land was improved, the people,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56and actually, that ties in with the Renaissance ideals
0:56:56 > 0:57:02of improving the villa, the garden and the countryside around.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24My visits to these gardens, both in and around Florence,
0:57:24 > 0:57:29have shown me that the ideals of the gardens made here 500 years ago,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33marshalling nature with elegant and rhythmic formality
0:57:33 > 0:57:36and a surprisingly rich horticultural palette
0:57:36 > 0:57:39was one of the great artistic features of the Italian high Renaissance,
0:57:39 > 0:57:43and is something that we still instinctively respond to.
0:57:45 > 0:57:51The Renaissance, for the first time, took gardens and ordered them with harmony.
0:57:51 > 0:57:56Instead of fighting nature and defending themselves against it, it welcomed it.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00It looked for interesting plants and created a space
0:58:00 > 0:58:05that was balanced, symmetrical, but filled with delight
0:58:05 > 0:58:08and also, incidentally, filled with flowers.
0:58:13 > 0:58:19Next time I will be down south, where a much more informal and highly romantic style of garden
0:58:19 > 0:58:23came to thrive in the beautiful countryside around Naples.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27It bursts the constraints of the formal Italian garden,
0:58:27 > 0:58:30despite itself, it can't help itself but be free.
0:58:47 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:49 > 0:58:52E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk