The subtitle, ‘The Anglo-American Gardens of Florence’, of this engaging and elegantly produced book, is misleading. The reclusive and narcissistic chatelaine of the Villa Gamberai in the days of its glory, Princess Catherine Jeanne Keshko Ghika, was not an Anglo-American but a Romanian. Similarly, Lady Paget, indefatigable not merely as a custodian of her superb garden at Torre di Bellosguardo but also as a lady scribbler, was born a Saxon princess, Walburga (‘Wally’ to her friends) Helena de Hohenthal.
Katie Campbell also from time to time strays beyond her geographical parameters. The Sitwells’ Montegufoni, Val d’Orcia, in which Iris Origo’s La Foce is situated, and Anciano, where Lord Lambton in some measure expiated for an often misspent life by the creation of a superb garden for his Villa Cetinale, can hardly be regarded as even remote suburbs of Florence.
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