page_title: Janet Ross
section_title: Life in Italy
hierarchical_section_title: Janet Ross / Life in Italy
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of the kitchen at poggio gherardo
context_page_description: Janet Ann Ross was an English historian, biographer, and Tuscan cookbook author.
context_section_description: In 1867 the Egyptian banking system underwent a crisis that diminished Henry Ross's investments and ended his banking career. Given their reduced circumstances Henry and Janet decided against returning to England because of the high cost of living. Instead they explored living on the continent, looking initially at an estate in France. Henry and Janet eventually moved to Florence, Italy, leaving their only child, Alexander (Alick) to be educated in England.
  They initially lived in a couple of apartments in Florence, on the Lungarno Acciaiuoli and the Lungarno Torrigiani. They tried to buy Fenis Castle near Aosta, Italy, but could not afford it. They ultimately rented Villa Castagnolo seven miles west of Florence in Lastra a Signa from its owner: Marchese Lotteringo della Stufa. The capital city of Italy was relocating from Florence to Rome, and the Marchese moved with it to take a government position. The Marchese was extremely knowledgeable about agriculture and taught Janet much about farming. In turn, Janet also began implementing more modern agricultural methods at the villa especially in the areas of viticulture and cheese-making. One year she supervised the making of olive oil, an experience she would find useful when she later purchased her own villa. Henry, essentially retired at this point, occupied himself by raising orchids. Janet also befriended a local sculptor, Carlo Orsi, who resided at Orsi Villa. Henry encouraged Orsi to do more sketching, and Janet ultimately used him to illustrate many of her books. While at Castagnolo Janet had a falling out with the British novelist Marie Louise Rame, who wrote under the pseudonym Ouida. Ouida was wooing the Marchese and believed Janet's relationship with him was more than platonic. In her novel Friendship she included an unflattering portrait of a character transparently based on Janet. Janet responded by placing a copy of the novel, sans covers, in the bathroom for appropriate use.
  
  In 1884, the Rosses travelled to Apulia in Southern Italy, where they stayed with Sir James Lacaita at his estate (Villa Leucàspide) near Taranto. Lacaita was an Italian scholar and politician. While there, Janet travelled extensively throughout the region. The trip inspired her book Land of Manfred prince of Tarentum... (1889), which she dedicated to Lacaita. 
  In 1888, the Rosses acquired the Villa di Poggio Gherardo (Italian) outside Florence, near Settignano. The villa had been in the Gherardo family for some 450 years, and purportedly was the one famously referenced by Boccaccio in the Decameron. It came with three attached farms (poderes) and operated under the mezzadria system whereby the tenant farmers (contadini) paid rent to the padrona consisting of half their production. Janet Ross was a capable businesswoman who managed the estate well and sold its produce at an adequate profit. She imported fortified white wine from Sicily, added sugar and a number of herbs, producing a vermouth that was in considerable demand in England. She claimed the vermouth recipe was a secret one handed down to her by the last of the Medicis.
  She was also an occasional dealer in art. She discovered the painting The School of Pan by Luca Signorelli and later sold it at a substantial profit. She purchased a drawing by early Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto that was a study for his painting Deposition From the Cross. She also acquired a painting that Bernard Berenson identified as being Madonna and Child by the Renaissance painter Alesso Baldovinetti.
  
  Janet conducted a salon of sorts on Sundays at the villa, entertaining numerous writers and artists including: Edward Hutton, George Meredith, John Addington Symonds, Augustus Hare, Marie Corelli, Alfred Austin, and Norman Douglas. In 1892 she located the nearby Villa Viviano for Mark Twain and his wife to rent for a year, during which time they became good friends. While there, Twain completed the manuscript of his novel Pudd'nhead Wilson. In her autobiography, Janet remarks:
  The Clemens family were very pleasant neighbours. He used to drop in at all
caption: Frontispiece of Leaves From Our Tuscan Kitchen, showing Chef Volpi in the kitchen of Poggio Gherardo
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