Iris Origo:A Chill in the Air
Iris Origo:A Chill in the Air Book Launch
This Italian war diary from 1939-40 by the remarkable writer and Tuscan landowner cuts through the lies of propaganda and dictatorships.
Antony Beevor, The Guardian.
What better way to give the gift of language than with a good book? If you weren't lucky enough to attend the London launch of A Chill in the Air, you are still in time to order a copy for Christmas.
The recently discovered war diary of Iris Origo recounts the turbulent times at La Foce in Val D'Orcia, Siena, following the 1943 Armistice. Born in Gloucestershire in 1902, Iris travelled widely before her father's sudden death in 1910.Her mother Lady Sybil Cuffe, settled in Fiesole amongst the Anglo-American set, purchasing and restoring the beautiful renaissance Villa Medici..
In 1924 Iris married Antonio Origo, son of Marchese Clemente Origo. They moved to their purchased estate, La Foce, near Chianciano Terme in the Province of Siena. The property was in ruins but through their shared dreams the Origos managed to transform it.
During the Second World War, the Origos remained at La Foce and looked after refugee children, sheltered there. Following the Armistice of 8th September 1943, Iris Origo assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war, who were trying to cross the German lines, or simply to survive.
This diary, which has never been published and was recently found in Origo's archives, is the riveting account of those dangerous times. Well-informed and well-connected, in A Chill in the Air, Iris Origo recounts the troubles and the turmoil of those early war years. Its catastrophic effects are documented in the bestseller War in Val D'Orcia.
A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary 1939-1940 is published by Pushkin. (RRP £14.99)
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Read on to find out more about our 2014 visit to Tuscany’s Villa La Foce
Villa La Foce ‘mi garba’ as the locals say in Olde Tuscan. Rain apart, there was little not to like about this Tuscan villa and farm created by Anglo-American writer Iris Origo and her husband Antonio in the mid-1920s on the site of a 15th century Osteria (Inn). As its name suggests ‘La Foce’ (estuary; river mouth) sits at the entrance to Southern Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia where the inn once provided respite for merchants and pilgrims travelling from Canterbury to Rome along the historical Via Francigena. Looking out over an ancient Etruscan site, it was strategically positioned on the crossroads between Montepulciano, Montalcino, Chianciano,Pienza and Sarteano.
Once at the garden, we heard tales of Iris’ mother: the colourful, widowed socialite Lady Sybil Cutting and the early years Iris spent at her mother’s home in Fiesole at the spectacular Villa Medici. On 4 March 1924, Iris married Antonio Origo and they moved to La Foce. There they instructed English architect Cecil Pinsent to begin work restoring and extending the original buildings. Pinsent was already known to Iris, since he had worked at Villa Medici and at Bernard Berenson’s Villa, I Tatti. His innovative approach to the concepts of 16th-century Italian garden design were, in time, to make La Foce one of the most important examples twentieth century Tuscan architecture and design.
At the beginning of our tour we viewed Twenties’ photos of the inhospitable, barren terrain of the Crete Senese hills that Pinsent was charged with transforming. Our guide Sybilla Holz commented that one of Pinsent's greatest talents was his ‘insight into the psychology of perception’. Part of the garden’s distinctiveness is the play of levels and light. Slowly, it took shape in four stages.
The cypress-line drive leads to the courtyard in front of the house where the facade still displays its fifteenth century features. Two domed holm oaks, one original, stand guard in front of the loggia.
Across the lawn is la limonaia (orangery) and from here, up a few steps, a stone ramp leads out to il primo giardino (the fountain garden,1924). Subsequently Pinsent created il giardino dei limoni (the lemon garden, 1933), il giardino delle rose (the rose garden 1938), il giardino terrazzato informale (the Poggio) and ultimately il giardino formale inferiore (the formal lower garden, 1939). This last garden, with its distinctive double box, provides a signature of geometric lines.
Sybilla went on to explain: “This garden (The lemon garden) was intended to be, as Pinsent simply declared, a symmetrical garden on a middle axis, and not at all terraced in the ‘wrong direction’. This is important because the ideal direction would be coming down from the house; but here you have the direction dominated by the hill, which is the wrong way round - it is parallel to the façade.” This just goes to show, sometimes wrong can be so very right…
Visits ( Guided tours only) are held on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, and 6pm (Apr-Oct) and from 3-5pm (Nov-March) and every weekend and national holiday (April 21 and 25, May 1, June 2, August 15, December 26, and January 1 2015) at 11:30am, 3pm and 4:30pm.
La Foce 53042 Chianciano Terme (Siena) Tel.+39 057869101 - info@lafoce.com www.lafoce.com
Casali a La Foce: The Foce rents farmhouses with swimming pools on the estate.
Gli incontri in terra di Siena: La Foce hosts a musical festival with international musicians in the second half of July.
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Our articles express an independent viewpoint but you may wish to know ‘who’ helped make the trip.
Where we stayed: We stayed 20 minutes from San Gimignano at Borgo Pignano Country Residence. We loved this place and highly recommend it. More information>
Our guide: Beatrice Fornai – Tuscan spell bea@tuscanspell.com, +00393331662326,
Car rental: Green Motion, Pisa. Pisa@greenmotion.it
See our photo album and short videos from the trip on Pintrest and Facebook>