Paradise of Exiles: The Anglo-American Gardens of Florence by Katie Campbell
Frances Lincoln, £35
Although Henry James knew but never lived in the rolling Tuscan hills surrounding Florence, it is his restrained, tasteful, super-sensitive spirit that pervades Katie Campbell’s account of the expatriate Anglo-American community that settled there in the latter part of the 19th century. The hills are sufficiently close to Florence to enjoy its culture and society while being well away from the madding crowd.
In the summer the city was hot and smelly, in the winter cold, a place to visit rather than to live. Such was the rationale behind the expatriate community who settled in the decaying villas and farmhouses that could either be bought or rented for a song. The struggle for unification had destroyed much of the cultivation of the hills, but not their natural beauty.
The diverse range of wealthy settlers who, for various reasons, felt unable to settle in their own country recognised a bargain, while the genteel and impoverished could eke out their meagre income in style. Some were also attracted by the liberal laws about sexual orientation, while for others it offered a civilized way of life with sufficient proximity to like-minded neighbours.
Many set about the task of restoring the buildings, gardens and land with energy. Architects sympathetic to the old buildings introduced modern facilities such as running water and farmland was cultivated, but for many the greatest attraction was to create a luscious, ordered garden. Trees, plants and shrubs were imported from Britain to create an “English” garden, but many drew on local fauna and foliage.
Katie Campbell focuses on two aspects of this often odd, unconventional society, one detailing the gardens they created, though she never quite explains how they were supplied with sufficient water; the other is to give snapshots of a few of the individual characters who settled there. These included the distinguished art historian and connoisseur Bernard Berenson who used his house, I Tatti, as his base to study and authenticate works of art, often overturning established attributions. It was only when it was revealed that he received regular payments from the wealthy collector Lord Duveen that his integrity was brought into question.
The cross-dressing and opinionated writer Violet Paget, known as Vernon Lee, occupied a baroque mansion; the beautiful Romanian Princess Jeanne Ghike lived in seclusion with her American companion Miss Blood; while the English novelist Ouida allowed her gardens, like her dogs, to run wild.
While injecting new life into the old Tuscan countryside, the community remains a curiosity, a branch of imperialism that was part of a romantic idyll available to those of reasonable means.
Emmanuel Cooper
