The La Foce estate is the showpiece of one aristocratic family's generations-long effort to revitalize an area in Italy's Val d'Orcia region that was impoverished in the early 20th century. Seth Doane reports on how a farmer-entrepreneur helped remake the 7,000-acre estate, which is now a backdrop for weddings and film shoots.

La Foce

La Foce, located in the Val d'Orcia region of Tuscany, has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past century. Originally a Renaissance-era rest stop for pilgrims, the estate was in a state of disrepair when Antonio and Iris Origo purchased it in the 1920s. Through their efforts, the Origos revitalized the land and community, establishing schools, roads, and a health organization, and developing an extensive irrigation system that supported over 50 farms.

During wartime, La Foce served as a refuge for those fleeing conflict and became self-sufficient, providing food and shelter to many. The estate's gardens, designed by English architect Cecil Pinsent, blend classical Italian and English elements, and have become a centerpiece for visitors and cultural events. Today, La Foce is recognized for its historical significance, hosting tourists, weddings, and even serving as a filming location, while ongoing preservation efforts continue to safeguard its legacy.

La Foce: A Renaissance painting come to life

With Seth Doan, we're off to a magnificent spot, perfectly situated under the Tuscan sun. With the wisteria in full bloom, it's hard to imagine this paradise was once described as being as bare and gray as an elephant's back, or that it was on the front lines of war. But this garden very much plays with perspective. Whether framing the perfect Tuscan view, or representing a full day's work, it certainly symbolizes a stunning transformation from long before it was a backdrop for the cocktail party scene in an HBO hit. What about her? She looks nice. Yeah. Some people who are close watchers of Succession would recognize this house. Oh yes, we've had a lot of friends calling and saying, I saw La Foce on TV. La Foce is where Benedetta Origo grew up, an estate near Montepulciano in Val d'Orcia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Your parents would really change this valley in Tuscany. They did. Especially my father, who was a passionate farmer, but he was a tremendous entrepreneur as well. Her dad, Antonio Origo, was from an Italian aristocratic family, and her mother, Iris, was an American English heiress. In the 1920s, they'd left behind the niceties of a more cosmopolitan Florence. What brought them here? This was a pretty remote, almost desolate part of Tuscany. Very desolate. And that is exactly what they were looking for. They wanted something that they could leave a mark on. Once a Renaissance-era rest stop for pilgrims... People could stop at the top of the hill and refresh themselves. When the Origos bought it and the surrounding farms in 1924, it was run down. Both the villa and the community were in desperate need. There was over 90% of illiteracy in the Val d'Orcia. So you had to start with schools. Now if you build a school, you have to build roads. You have to have some kind of health organization. Antonio Origo also developed a system to irrigate the land, which at its peak included more than 50 farms on La Foce's 7,000 acres. My father was born in the same room where I was, Norris Pascucci told us. He's worked the land at La Foce for 35 years. His grandfather was a farmer there before the Origos arrived. What does it represent, he asked. This place gave me a livelihood, allowed me to have a family, everything, all here. What are your earliest memories of childhood here? Not awfully good, actually, because it was during the war. I was born in 1940. Italy today, and the story of hunger, pain, and misery. And during the war, La Foce became a refuge of sorts for those fleeing the fighting or orphaned. We fed them, we had an enormous kitchen garden. La Foce was totally self-sufficient. So during the war, that was a lifesaver. Lifesaving, absolutely. Your parents took a risk in protecting partisans, those who were fighting the Nazis. Risks they took galore. Benedetta's mother Iris kept diaries during the war. When they were republished in the 1980s, Warren Valdorce became a bestseller. She most uncomfortably, I always thought, sat and wrote her books with a pad on her knee. From her bedroom, Iris Arrigo could look out over the axis of her garden. Centre of the garden, centre of their lives, really. And now these gardens are the centrepiece of a book granddaughter Katia Lisi wrote. It's the formal Italian part, which blends so well with the English garden. It was all planned by English architect Cecil Pinsent. He followed this neo-humanist philosophy in which a garden would have a lot of classical elements. It's hard to look out here and imagine that this was a lunar landscape of sorts. Lunar, exactly. So she says Pinsent had a blank slate on which to work. Very few of his plans survived the war. This winding driveway was originally part of the property. It had two purposes. As new farms were built, they needed the road to get up. They said the other purpose has to be absolutely aesthetic. Let us look at the Florentine and Sienese frescoes. The harmony between man and nature. Indeed, it feels a bit like being in a Renaissance painting in real life. Today the garden is open to tourists and the property rented for weddings or the occasional TV show. It's part of the reality of funding the preservation of this place, safeguarding this piece of history. There's war, there's love, there's landscape, there's a beautiful garden. It's a story that deserves to be told, I think.

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Brasilia

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Breakdown