A Garden in Lucca: Finding Paradise in Tuscany

In 1982, Gervais (Extraordinary People) and his companion moved from California to the Italian province of Tuscany. The villa they bought in the small town of Massa Macinaia, just outside of Lucca, included a vineyard, an olive grove and a half-abandoned garden. Gervais's pensive memoir describes how he transformed this garden into his own paradise. Because he had no previous gardening experience, his first experiments were less than successful--a timid arrangement of box balls, uninspired rows of red salvia, beds of herbs that deteriorated into a parterre of alpine strawberries. Only after several years and the shock of nearly losing the villa because of financial difficulties does Gervais begin to take the garden renovation seriously. He scours books for inspiration, studies garden history and visits showplace gardens. Then, with the aid of handmade terra-cotta pots, hedges and a grotto, he creates a garden that expresses his personality as well as ""the spirit of the spot."" Gervais describes poetically the thought process that enabled him to create this garden but loses focus when he digresses into vignettes about other aspects of his life in Italy--an eccentric Italian caretaker, New Yorkers who rent a cottage on his property, memorable meals in restaurants. Line drawings not seen by PW. (Mar.)