Landscapes

There may be other regions in Italy that are lusher, others with taller mountains and more fertile valleys, and others that support more varied flora and enjoy a more temperate climate. Yet ultimately, it is the landscapes of Tuscany and Umbria that exert the most lasting charm. In the paintings of the Renaissance, the rolling hills, cypresses, poplars and parasol pines, vineyards and winding lanes of the background are often more beautiful than the nominally religious subject in the foreground. As early as Giotto, artists took care to relate the figures in their composition to the architecture and the landscape around them, epitomized in the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, where each tree and rock takes on an almost mystic significance.

The tidy geometry and clipped hedges of an Italian garden are a perfect example of the Italian urge to order nature, and you’ll find good examples in the Boboli Gardens and the Medici villas at Castello and Collodi. The Tuscans, in the vanguard of Italy in so many ways, were the first to order their entire territory.