Tuscany's secret, scented citrus gardens

Hilltop views and shady gardens in Buggiano Castello & Limoncello Spritz

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A dozen artists sit hunched over canvas, intense in their work. The group has travelled south from Switzerland through northern Italy to Tuscany for a painting holiday and is now spread in and around a beautifully restored brick building. Light streams through floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a garden full of citrus trees, many hugging the step walls or resting quietly in giant terracotta pots.

We’re in Buggiano Castello, a hilltop town close to the Tuscan town of Pistoia and about an hour west of Florence by car. The art class students work in a once abandoned limonaria, a silent witness to huge terracotta pots over-wintering lemon and citrus trees. The limonaria once formed part of a noble family's residence and is now integral to an upmarket hotel named after the previous owners, the Villa Pichi Sermolli. Today, the room was filled with the gentle murmurs of swishing paintbrushes, pencils and charcoal.

Scenes from a hilltop village in the heart of Tuscany

The hotel's Baroque garden, a symmetrical, theatrical space, is a living example of generations of wealth and taste. Areas within the garden are laid out like rooms, in geometric patterns and with a fountain being a focal point. But for visitors, the heart of the garden is found in the tightly manicured lemon trees pinned to high walls and the heavily scented trees in the pots.

The Sermolli garden was one of six across Buggiano Castello I visited, sadly out of the traditional citrus season but still with plenty of stories to be revealed. Across the gardens, I found leaves damaged by an unseasonably brutal Spring hail, scorched leaves burnt as climate change raises temperatures and local residents' passion for the village's long association with the citrus fruits. Buggiano Castello is a village in the grip of a bittersweet fever. Many of its private gardens are given to the owners' collective passion: citrus fruits from lemons and oranges to mandarins and pomelos.

Buddhas Hand citrus and other rare examples found in across the town

Perched on a hilltop in western Tuscany, central Italy, Buggiano Castello is where lemon, lime and orange trees bloom on a picturesque outcrop set amongst Tuscany's more familiar vineyards. 

Gardens are enclosed by high walls through which ornate gates open to reveal espaliers of fruit trees, neatly kept terraces, and narrow paths disappearing into vegetation and snaking around corners. Planting is geometrically rhythmic, with trees and planting acting as theatrical backdrops to the daily lives of the local people. The number of residents varies around 90, with 80 volunteers signing up for the Buggiano Castello Cultural Association membership. The group manages many of the events in the town and supports homeowners, keeping the village's citrus tradition alive.

These locals share a love of citrus, which is crucial in keeping their village an attractive, vibrant place to live in and visit. Indeed, citrus fever grips the town, with many residents volunteering for the biannual open garden festival. Every couple of years, around the end of April and the beginning of May, the village hosts the 'Campagna Dentro Le Mura' festival, loosely translated as 'The Gardens Inside the Walls'. The fleeting event sees hundreds of visitors clambering around private gardens admiring the sheer hard work, patience and collective love of gardening.

A fragrant cast of non-citrus vegetation supports a vibrant biodiversity, including sweet oranges and lemons, Mediterranean herbs such as sage and oregano, and plants from bamboo to roses and walnut trees. Buggiano Castello's special micro-climate also suits olive trees and the ubiquitous pointy Cyprus pines seen across the Tuscany landscape. Culinary, Mediterranean fruits, including persimmon, plum, apricot, pomegranate and fig, can also be harvested across the village.

But for this village, citrus is the main attraction. Lemons (Citrus limon), espalier lemons (Espalier lemon), oranges (Citrus sinensis) and mandarins (Citrus reticulata) can all be found pinned to the high, south-facing walls or ordered in serried ranks across neatly kept, narrow terraces. Citrus trees also stand tall in terracotta pots, so heavy they need mini-tractors to move them.

Italian hilltop towns generally have buildings and high walls, offering few open green spaces. Not so at Buggiano Castello. There is greenery, open spaces in communal areas, and everywhere branches heavy with citrus overhanging private garden walls, providing shade in the village's twisting, cobbled, Medieval lanes.

Known locally as Borgo degli Agrumi, the village of citrus, Buggiano Castello, is peppered with fruit trees that nature would suggest shouldn't thrive here. But, a bizarre micro-climate allows these fragile trees to grow and produce fruit. 

• Residents of Buggiano Castello are all enthusiastic gardeners and citrus growers, with Antonio Disperti (third from left), president of the Buggiano Castello Cultural Association.

It's a warm morning, and a steamy haze softens the distant view. The village lies some 186 metres above sea level and some 50 metres above the main town of Buggiano. Pausing at the edge of the village, my gaze turns south and into a relatively industrial part of Tuscany. My guide tells me this is steam rising from the marshes drained by military engineers working for the Austrian empire led by the Habsburg family in the late 18th Century. This newly created land was fertile and suited the growing of arable crops and was never considered for citrus cultivation. However, in a botanical twist of fate, today, the valley is home to Oscar Tintori, a world-famous nursery specialising in ornamental citrus plants.

The cultural offering is excitingly eclectic. Every two years, the metal gates of some 19 private gardens across the village are unlocked and open to the public for just two days, the last Sunday of April and the first Sunday of May. This year's event included literary readings linking the poetry to citrus, garden design, candied fruit tasting and olive oil appreciation.

There's still time to plan a visit this year. Click here for the event website.

THE COCKTAIL GROVE: Limoncello Spritz

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Here's an idea for that bottle of Limoncello sitting in your cupboard or preferably in your freezer. The Cocktail Grove will offer regular ideas for citrus-inspired cocktails you'll love and enjoy. On a recent family trip to Vienna, we recently enjoyed this Limoncello Spritz at the Plachuttas Gasthaus zur Opera, a light and airy restaurant in Vienna where this fun and sparkly drink was offered as an aperitif.

Our spritz came with a generously-sized sprig of mint, but you can add extra flavour with thyme sprigs or perhaps a leaf or two of basil. 

The basic recipe you're looking for is 3-parts sparkling wine, 2-parts Limoncello and 1-part soda water. 

• ice, lots of cubes 

• 50ml Limoncello 

• 75ml prosecco

• 25 ml soda water (not tonic water)

• sprig of herb (your choice, maybe mint, thyme, rosemary or basil, optional) 

Fill a wine glass with ice. Pour over the Limoncello and stir with a long spoon. Top up soda and the sparkling wine of your choice before adding your preferred herby garnish.

Bruce McMichael
Writer, Podcaster, Educator
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