In contrast with the arid landscape of the Val d'Orcia, the exuberant gardens created by Cecil Pinsent for the writer Iris Origo at La Foce, Tuscany, Italy, are all the more astonishing, finds Charles Quest-Ritson. THE house and garden at La Foce in the Val d’Orcia are a monument to the energy and vision of Antonio and Iris Origo, who bought the estate in 1923. The house was built in the 15th century as a hospice for travellers along the Via Francigena...