Cool vacation Peter, take lots of pictures to post when you get back.

I should pull over while driving to try and take some garden pics.

Lots and lots of vineyards which is the main crop here, and olive groves, for the majority of the large scale commercial growing.

"Lots and lots of vineyards which is the main crop here."

Yep, Italians have always had fairly well prioritized interests!

First thing I saw when plane was landing in rome was they were baling hay (or straw) in the areas between the runways! Instead of massive amounts of black top they were farming it. Very different outlook on things, especially land, housing etc. Tuscany is very impressive from an agriculture stand point, I thought. Although I was impressed with bakersfield, ca area as well!

I think we take for granted the amount of land we have here. Most European countries, like Italy, fit inside Texas multiple times.

Peter, take some pics! Would love to see that.

In my community garden I have a neighbor from that area of Italy. I have benefited from his generosity in so many ways. He has shared his knowledge of gardening and plants and he has gifted me with several Italian varieties of tomatoes and I save seeds every year. And, his garden is incredible, just the way he trellis his tomatoes is like a work of art. Yes, I'm jealous... I want to see the Italian gardens too!

I love Italy!

Last year, I went to Prague and some of the surrounding Czech countryside, and it was the same thing when driving through the smaller towns - it seemed like each house had cold frames, gnarled fruit trees, various garden plots, small greenhouses and trellises everywhere they could squeeze one, with grapes for the family wine. I saw much more on the train ride to Budapest, and was very impressed at the determination to provide as much as possible from one's own plot of earth. I came home from that trip feeling very invigorated about my own garden, and bursting with ideas for years to come.

That sounds so wonderful, hope you're having a fantastic trip!

We went several years ago, but it was during a horrible heat wave! GRRRRRRR! Read Under the Tuscan Sun in prep for the trip! Love Love LOve!!!!!! Nancy

Unfortunately I was not able to get any great garden pics. We saw them all mostly while driving and on the train.

This is not the best one by far, but this was next to the parking lot at the supermarket. A few olive trees were in everyone's yards.

Wildflowers. The tall yellow ones that look like forsythia were growing everywhere, as were the red poppies.

Wild rosemary grows like crazy. In the shade.

Everyone also had big beautiful roses.

And artichokes

Vineyards everywhere big and small

Wild tree grove... id?

It's really like being in a painting. The pictures don't do it justice.

Wow!! Gorgeous. I want those trees to be olive trees haha.

Looks like you had great weather!

They look a lot like olive trees, but not quite. They definitely have olive trees growing like that all over the place. There are olive trees in the vegetable garden picture.

It actually rained every single day and was pretty cool. Not typical weather for there I hear. But the rain was mostly just passing showers so it wasn't a big deal.

Peter - I'm not sure which plants you are referring to as the 'tall yellow ones' but your photos show both a Broom, Cytisus aetnaensis, Mt Etna Broom and Ferula communis, Giant Fennel. The 'wild tree grove' is an olive orchard.

Cytisus aetnaensis is the one, thanks. These were growing everywhere, all along the roads, it looked a lot like Forsythia from a distance.

The 'orchard' was in a hiking trail in a state park.... Maremma. They were not being farmed. These trees looked different than the other olive trees I saw.

Obviously I am not seeing them as close up as you did, although they still look like old olives to me. The other possibility is cork oaks which are also grown in Maremma. Did you notice the tell tale change in bark colour?

in italian, ginestra. they are in fact used to make brooms.