An insider guide to our regions
Overview of the La Foce
The property of La Foce extends over the hills overlooking the Val d’Orcia, an enchanting and miraculously unspoilt valley in southern Tuscany, listed as UNESCO world heritage in 2004. Midway between Florence and Rome, La Foce is also within easy reach of Siena, Arezzo, Perugia, Assisi and Orvieto. Renaissance and medieval gems such as Pienza, Montepulciano, Monticchiello and Montalcino and the abbey of Sant’Antimo are only a few miles away from the houses you can rent at La Foce.
In 1924 the Irish-American Iris Origo – the famous author – and her Italian husband, Marchese Antonio Origo, acquired the La Foce estate – a combination of olive groves, widespread cultivated fields and woodland. In those days, their management of La Foce brought prosperity and cultural and social changes to the poverty-ridden land it was then. Today their daughters, Benedetta and Donata, run the La Foce estate and their personality pervades in the hospitable atmosphere.
The garden at La Foce was designed by Iris Origo and the famous English landscape gardener Cecil Pinsent between 1925 and 1939.
La Foce’s farmhouses have been luxuriously restored and provide wonderful holidays in this remarkably unspoilt valley.
The countryside around La Foce abounds in lovely walks in the woods and the typical “crete senesi” (clay hills) of the region. The food is considered the best in Tuscany and famous wines such as the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino can be sampled in the local cellars.