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Tuscany landscapes

tuscany-landascapes — Tuscany landscapes

The Tuscan landscape design style blends charm and Old World beauty with modern flair and elegance. This sophisticated, yet simple, theme for outdoor living space has made Tuscan landscape design quite popular, especially in affluent communities. The beauty, as well as the practicality, of a Tuscan garden complements today’s lifestyles and homes.

The plants, trees, and other flora that is incorporated into a landscape design are really the defining elements of any garden theme.Tuscan garden plants are very distinct and extremely important if you are planning a Tuscan style outdoor area.Tuscany is a central coastal region of Italy, known for its breathtaking scenery and relaxed, farming culture with an emphasis on vineyards.

Shade Relief and Privacy with Tuscan Trees and Shrubs
Trees and shrubs are a vital part of any relaxing outdoor design. Most of the trees native to Tuscany are evergreens, giving your home a lush, Mediterranean appearance year round. The following trees and shrubs will compliment any Tuscan landscape design…
The artistic curves and twists of Live Oak branches will provide wonderful shade and add character to your Tuscan garden.
Your Tuscan landscape design will not be complete without the symbolic Italian Cypress tree.
These grand evergreens make wonderful privacy barriers around your yard and add to the magnificence of your home.

Olive trees are also signature plants of Tuscany that should be a part of your design.
Showcase a variety of citrus trees, berry plants, and other Tuscany garden plants around your patio and terrace, using large terra cotta planters for a rustic Tuscan flair.

Tuscan shrubsmake wonderful hedges and look terrific along the walkways in your garden.
Boxwoods, bay trees, the yew tree, and other plants of Tuscany that are easily pruned make terrific topiaries for a contemporary touch to your garden design.

Palm trees can be incorporated into your Tuscan garden.RealPalmTrees.com carries a wide range of palms including many that can withstand the cooler temperatures of the Mediterranean nights in winter. They deliver to 48 States in the USA including worldwide and will arrange freight shipping for large specimens.

Canary Island Date Palms, European Fan Palms, Pindo Palms, Windmill Palms, California Fan Palms and Sago Palms are just some of the many that do well in a Mediterranean climate.

Smaller specimens are great in urns for both inside and out or under the canopies of larger trees. Large palms placed in rows produces a bold statement and can help lead the eye to an accent point. Palms are also great used near swimming pools to create a private oasis.

Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net

“A frog in the well does not know the sea.” – Japanese Proverb

Tuscany gardens

Tuscany Gardens

Tuscan Herb and Vegetable Gardens
Traditional Tuscan gardens were designed to be just as practical as they were beautiful, providing an assortment of fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables that filled the air with a sweet aroma and were used in the kitchen to prepare the rich Tuscan cuisine. Most contemporary Tuscan garden designs feature these same aromatic plants.
Italian herbs can be grown in a variety of containers and make attractive arrangements with very little effort.

Rosemary, sage, basil, and thymeare all common Tuscan garden plants.
There are a number of other plants that can be incorporated into your landscape design to add to your Tuscan atmosphere, including the distinct smelling lavender plant.

An Italian vegetable garden can be tastefully integrated into your Tuscan garden design and can provide you with a selection of fresh foods for your kitchen. Tomatoes, eggplant, colorful bell peppers, and exotic artichoke plants are perfect additions to your Tuscan backyard. The vineyards that scatter the Tuscany countryside can be recreated in your own outdoor area with delicate grape vines.

Choosing the Right Tuscan Garden Plants
There are a variety of Mediterranean plants that can add the charm of Tuscany to your landscape design. Selecting the right combination of these plants, with the ideal planting layout, is crucial to designing a rustic Tuscan garden that blends with the elegance of your home.

You will want to carefully position lush evergreen shade trees, majestic topiary hedges, and enchanting Tuscan fruit trees in the most ideal places, while leaving room for the fragrant herbs, soft lavender, and colorful vegetables that complete your Tuscan style garden.
Creeping vines and fragile flowers, like wisteria and pastel roses, and the rustic charm of grapevines are just as important.

Italy tour

Massaciuccoli Lake

Massaciuccoli Lake and Roman baths

Massarosa is famous for its splendid natural environment. Well-known since prehistoric times, Massarosa was inhabited during the Roman period and was so important that we still today find evidence of the ancient Roman Baths at Massaciuccoli. The environmental outings all along the famous Lake Massaciuccoli are amazing. There are the important habits connected to the ancient traditions.

Roman villa and old thermal baths Antiquarium
In Massacciuccoli Antiquarium are shown evidences of roman history, among which a beautiful mosaic floor. The visit to the museum is linked to the visit of the Roman villa within the thermal baths where in the summer takes place the review “Lune di Musica” (Music Moons). Already during the Roman period, the place was the seat of an harbour that afterwards became a marsh due to the withdrawal of the sea. the Massaciuccoli lake became a L.I.P.U. oasis. The lake, that was once an ancient coastal lagoon, became today the most important damp area in Tuscany (2.000 hectares).

Nature park of Migliarino San Rossore
The vast lake that the town stands on is the Lago di Massaciuccoli, a unique bird reserve that is part of the nature park of Migliarino-San Rossore. Boat trips around the lake are on offer on Piazzale Belvedere Puccini, usually with a Puccini soundtrack.The oasis can be visited on foot going along a pile-work pathway that goes across the marsh and allows to observe the most characteristic environment of the lake, ideal for bird-watching lovers. Visits are possible on canoes, small boats and even on boats (departure from Viareggio).

Gastronomy
The area boasts numerous traditional food festivals, including pupporina, tordello, porcini mushrooms and polenta. We can eat there as well some interesting special dishes from Roman times :
Garum (sause from fish)
Mulsum (wine with honey)
Pane ficatum (bread with figues)
Torta di farro (cake from farro cereal)
Castagnaccio (cake from nuts)

Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net
“A frog in the well does not know the sea.”- Japanese Proverb

Villas in Lucca

A few minutes from Pinocchio Park in Collodi, immersed in the countryside of Lucchesia, you will find the magnificent Nobility Villas that were the summer residences of the Nobles and also representative places.

Proceeding from Collodi towards Lucca, the first you will encounter is Villa Torrigiani, a luminous example of Baroque architecture, and it’s possible to visit the inside which is finely furnished and has an ample park.

Then you come across Villa Mansi which was the residence of a very important family of Lucca, ascent to the honours in the field of silk commerce. The building, built in 1500, was reconstructed the following century then the Mansi entrusted the architect Filippo Juvarra to transform the garden which was divided as seen today, into four side by side sections.

Villa Oliva and Villa Grabau are both found in San Pancrazio. Villa Oliva, was constructed by the Buonvisi family in 1500, in the course of the centuries it has changed owners many times, and once a Consistory to the presence of Pope Alessandro VII, stayed there. Today the residence has been restored and about 5 hectares of park that surround it, is characterised by the presence of really appreciable rare essences, waterfalls and fountains.

Not far away is Villa Grabau, again from 1500, born on a ravine of an ancient medieval village, thanks to the work of the Diodat family. After many transformations, the actual aspect can be attributed to a German banker married to Carolina Grabau. Immersed is a spectacular Park, characterised by an English garden, an Italian garden and the lovely Teatro di Verzura, where today summer performances take place.

The Villa Reale di Marlia was once residence in 1805 to the sister of Bonaparte. In the following centuries to the Grand Duke of Tuscany and then the King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II, who gave it to Prince Carlo. Fallen from grace for many contracted debts from the nephew of Carlo, in 1918 started the indiscriminating sale of furniture, furnishings and the Villa. So the family of Conti Pecci-Blunt entered on the scene, who bought the property saving the park from disaster, restructuring and conserving it with passion and even today maintaining the splendour intact like the example of the Viale delle Camelie or the marvellous Teatro di Verdura.

You will find Villa Bernardini in Vicopelago. The construction was finished in 1615, and since then has conserved unchanged and enriched the furnishings and park of the ancient property.

Leslie Halloran
Please check out my website at: www.lihdesigns.net

“A frog in the well does not know the sea.” – Japanese Proverb

Truffles

The Tuscany truffle area around San Miniato in Pisa province

Every autumn hundreds of truffle lovers congregate in the ancient main squares of the towns to sample, judge and evaluate the many varieties of this so desired and costly fungus or tuber about which the great Brillant Savarin once said that it could ‘make a woman more tender and a man more loveable’.

In San Miniato in Pisa province, in woods on low hills armies of expert hunters, aided by their faithful pig or pup, literally dig up first-class specimens of both the white and black varieties. In those autumn days of gourmet festivals the truffle is king of the kitchen and its unforgettable aromas never cease to amaze and spell-bind.

What is the truffle ?

Truffles grow only on or near the roots of trees, mainly limes, poplars and weeping willows and especially oaks, at depths up to thirty centimetres (twelve inches). They are hunted with the aid of keen-nosed pigs or talented dogs, but since porcine predilections for the precious lumps are even more enthusiastic than mankind’s, determined digging sprees for the prize are usually won by the pig. It is therefore prudent to train up a dog, by nature indifferent to truffle charms. Commercial cultivation is impracticable – rare and special soils are needed in addition to the right tree roots, and the creation of fecund conditions requires much costly, expert and laborious care for eight or ten years before, if ever, any useful specimens appear (often none ever do).

Truffles are so rare in North American that few people have ever heard of them, let alone hunted any. Apparently truffles live in symbiosis with the tree, absorbing water and mineral salts from the soil through the tree roots. Colour, texture, aroma and flavour seem to be determined by the symbiosis. Oak-borne truffles have a more penetrating, pungent aroma compared with those growing near lime trees, whose perfume is powerful but gentler, sweeter. It should be remembered that truffles have very little flavour by themselves – their preciousness derives from their unique ability to impart a wonderfully delicious, almost magical flavour to accompanying or ancillary foods on which they are placed or with which they are mixed.

The use

The very best sorts should be cut into paper-thin slices for covering the food they are to garnish – meats, pastasciutta, vegetables. Lesser qualities are excellent for cutting into little pieces and browning them in oil with a little garlic and thyme, this condiment to be applied quickly and directly to the main dish on the plate or they may be ground into sauces for innumerable uses.

Web-site: www.comune.san-miniato.pi.it