La Foce
Toscana, Val d'Orcia
The property of La Foce lies on the hills overlooking the Val d'Orcia, a beautiful and miraculously intact valley in Southern Tuscany. Midway between Florence and Rome, it is also within easy reach of Siena, Arezzo, Perugia, Assisi, Orvieto. Renaissance and medieval gems such as Pienza, Montepulciano, Monticchiello and Montalcino are only a few miles away.
The countryside abounds in lovely walks among woods and the characteristic crete senesi (clay hills); the food is among the best in Tuscany and famous wines such as the Vino Nobile and Brunello can be tasted in the local cellars.
The Val d’Orcia is included among the World Heritage sites of UNESCO.
The garden
When Antonio and Iris Origo bought the estate of La Foce, they engaged the English architect Cecil Pinsent, who had previously done extensive work on Bernard Berenson's Villa I Tatti in Florence, to restructure the main...
Villa Origo
Villa La Foce is an Italian Historic House and its gardens are world-famous. It is available for rent either by the week or for events such as weddings and family celebrations, and is also available as a filming location.
Iris Origo
The wonderful - though sometimes difficult - years at La Foce are vividly described by Iris in her two autobiographical books, Images and Shadows and War in Val d'Orcia. Iris (1902-1988) was brought up between Florence...
Goop - Giardino La Foce
This was once the home of Iris Origo, author of War in the Val d’Orcia (required reading if you’re going to spend any real time in the valley). Today, the spectacular palazzos, olive groves, and gardens are run by her two daughters, Donata and Benedetta...
The New York Times - Eyewitness to Fascism
Iris Origo's early life sounds like something out of a Henry James novel. Her father, Bayard Cutting, who came from an extremely wealthy American family, traveled the globe in search of relief from the symptoms of the tuberculosis that would kill him at age 29...
TDN - Heaven on Hallowed Ground
In 1944, 18 years before I was born, Iris Origo saved my life. In the literal sense, what she really did was to make my life possible. There are hundreds like me, all over Europe and America; the help she gave to my father during World War II is only one of the...
Dopolavoro "La Foce"
The ‘Dopolavoro’ was originally built in 1939 as a meeting place for the workers on the estate. Today, the restaurant serves traditional Tuscan dishes, flavored with the delicious La Foce extra-virgin olive oil and created with the best seasonal local produce.
