Читать книгу Walking in Tuscany. 43 walks including Val d'Orcia, San Gimignano and the Isle of Elba онлайн

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As flowers go, there’s ubiquitous yellow broom, which scents the air with its distinctive perfume. Another early bloomer is the caper plant, a straggly spiny shrub that covers walls with its pink-white flowers – to be appreciated in haste before they are gathered for pickling. Spring and summer delights include rainbow masses of paper-like Cistus (rock roses) and pink-purple wild gladiolus, not to mention emerald-green wheat fields streaked with the brilliant blue of cornflowers and the red of poppies. Wild orchids come in myriad amazing varieties, from the minuscule Ophrys, so-called insect orchids, to the showy lady orchid and the common purple.

Towards the coast, prolific wild herbs reveal their presence with a pungent aroma or fragrance released when inadvertently trampled or even lightly brushed. The long list features oregano, mint, thyme, rosemary and sage. Sandy beaches and dunes are home to pale lilac sea lavender and to the woolly yellow plants of everlasting, an unassuming plant whose elongated silvery leaves conjure up oriental spices when rubbed, hence its nickname ‘curry plant’.