Palazzo Cervini, a pope's palace in tuscany.

This stunning Renaissance palace, castle and hermitage were built from volcanic rock, on a volcano in 1538 for Pope Marcello II. The hermitage was soon built to accomodate a very secretive order of hermit monks - the Camaldolesi from Camaldoli near Florence.

I was invited to re-design a very precious and ancient courtyard that had been used by these monks as a physic garden and I had every intention of respecting this fact. So, naturally I based the design around a planting of plants that had in some way assisted humans in their development - a modern italian physic garden principal.