Thomas Jefferson Visits Italy

President Barack Obama met with French President Francois Hollande, and both world leaders discussed the economic and political issues of their respective countries as well as the Syrian crisis.  Since President Obama played host to the French president’s visit to Washington D.C., one of the first stops on the agenda was to visit Monticello, the home of former President Thomas Jefferson, just outside Charlottesville, Virginia. 

 

After completing their private tour of Jefferson’s architectural wonder that he designed when he was 26 years old, President Obama declared that Monticello symbolized “the incredible history between France and the United States.”  Although France is the United States’ oldest alley, the political relationship between the two nations has at times gone from blissful to frosty, depending on the era.  Presently, the two nations have entered a much friendlier and happier time with the newly elected Hollande.  

 

The Franco-American relation goes as far back as to Thomas Jefferson when he served as US Ambassador to France from 1785 to 1789.   If Monticello represents the profound history between France and the United States then it also symbolizes Thomas Jefferson interest with Italy.  Even before traveling to Italy he named his home Monticello (little mountain) as a result of studying the Italian language and culture.  

 

He was so fascinated by Italian history, and ancient Roman architecture, that he planned to visit the area once settling in France.  

In 1787, while meeting with French aristocracy in Paris to develop stronger political ties between the two countries, Thomas Jefferson decided to take a break and travel around the northern regions of Italy.

Jefferson was also a huge fan of Andrea Palladio who wrote Four Books of Architecture; one of Jefferson’s favorite books, and his early designs of Monticello were encouraged by reading and studying the Italian work.

 

While jaunting around the Italian regions, he also indulged in savoring many Italian wines. He was apparently not only a wine connoisseur from his training in France but also wrote extensively about his experiences with Italian wines.   

 

According to John R. Hailman, author of Thomas Jefferson on Wine, “Jefferson’s letters about wine, in the scope and variety of their curiosity, read remarkably like a Robert Parker newsletter or Wine Spectator article.” The writer goes on to mention, “Of Italian wines Jefferson drank quite a variety, including Chianti, Orvieto, Gattinara and Marsala… his favorite was Montepulciano, a wine once seldom seen in America, whose cousins the Chiantis dominated Italian imports.”

 

He enjoyed writing and talking about wine so much that he even influenced his other compatriots like George Washington and John Adams to fill their wine cellars and stock it with his Italian wine recommendations. Of course the US Ambassador to France, who later became the third US President, was not only a philosopher, lawyer, writer, statesman, but a horticulturist.

 

In fact Monticello garden was an area known for Jefferson’s failed experiments to duplicate Italian vineyards as well as other vegetables and grains. After visiting the Lombardy region, Jefferson fell in love with Italian arborio rice. At the time there was a strict law in the region that if anyone tried to smuggle the arborio seeds out of Lombardy, that person could be subject to death. Nonetheless, Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, smuggled arborio seeds out of the Italian region and later attempted to grow the rice on his estate but the experiment was unsuccessful.  

 

Outside of his visit to northern Italy, another connection to Thomas Jefferson and Italy was Filippo Mazzei, a Florentine merchant and physician. Thomas Jefferson and Filippo (Phillip) Mazzei became friends through Benjamin Franklin. Apparently Mazzei was visiting London while Franklin was there, and he was very interested in the arguments favoring individual liberties.  Ben Franklin was so impressed by Mazzei that he invited him to America and while visiting Virginia, Mazzei set up a business to introduce the cultivation of vineyards and other known crops of Italy.  

 

After a number of visits, Mazzei became neighbors and very good friends with Thomas Jefferson.  A few years later in 1779 Mazzei helped maintain the goals of the American Revolutionary War, by returning to Italy as a clandestine agent for the newly-created state of Virginia and shipped arms from Italy.  Phillip Mazzei is relatively unknown in American history even though John F. Kennedy in his book, A Nation of Immigrants credits Thomas Jefferson’s “all men are created equal” to the writings of Phillip Mazzei. Some historians however, believe this is a stretch to connect the idea to the Florentine physician.

 

Regardless of his impact on Thomas Jefferson, one thing is for certain, the two neighbors constantly chatted about growing some of Italy’s main crops in America.  Filippo did successfully transport to the Monticello gardens a variety of plants and orchards to grow plums, cherries, apricots, and peaches.

Scientific research indicates their attempts with other fruits, vegetables and grains also failed because of the limited resources and knowledge (at the time) in agrarian technology during the eighteenth century.  

 

As Jefferson traveled along the Italian Riviera, he wrote, “If any person wished to retire…it should be in some of the little villages of this coast, where air, earth and water concur to offer what each has most precious.” The natural beauty and culture of Italy resonated with Thomas Jefferson. Yet very little is ever mentioned about how Italian culture influenced one of the leading minds in world history. 

 

Perhaps when President Barack Obama visits Italy in the future, the Italian Prime Minister can plan a visit that retraces the path that Thomas Jefferson took while in northern Italy and celebrate the connection and history that this route represents between Italo-American diplomatic relations.  

Furthermore, after the media is gone and the two world leaders relax, they can open a bottle of Jefferson’s favorite Montepulciano wine and invite the French President as well.