Grand tours: It's been a good year for the roses

Louisa May Alcott sends her Little Women to Europe

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1832 but spent most of her childhood in Concord, Massachusetts. She worked as a teacher, seamstress and governess, but found her niche writing poetry and short stories. Her first book, 'Flower Fables', was published in 1854. Alcott's most notable work was the novel 'Little Women', published in 1869, in which she drew on her own experiences to produce a story revolving around four sisters in 19th-century New England, during the Civil War. It became a classic. Alcott died in 1888.

It was a lovely drive, along winding roads rich in the picturesque scenes that delight beauty-loving eyes. Here an ancient monastery, whence the solemn chanting of the monks came down to them. There a bare-legged shepherd, in wooden shoes, pointed hat, and rough jacket over one shoulder, sat piping on a stone while his goats skipped among the rocks or lay at his feet.

Meek, mouse-colored donkeys, laden with panniers of freshly cut grass passed by, with a pretty girl in a capaline sitting between the green piles, or an old woman spinning with a distaff as she went. Brown, soft-eyed children ran out from the quaint stone hovels to offer nosegays, or bunches of oranges still on the bough. Gnarled olive trees covered the hills with their dusky foliage, fruit hung golden in the orchard, and great scarlet anemones fringed the roadside, while beyond green slopes and craggy heights, the Maritime Alps rose sharp and white against the blue Italian sky.

Valrosa well deserved its name, for in that climate of perpetual summer roses blossomed everywhere. They overhung the archway, thrust themselves between the bars of the great gate with a sweet welcome to passers-by, and lined the avenue, winding through lemon trees and feathery palms up to the villa on the hill. Every shadowy nook, where seats invited one to stop and rest, was a mass of bloom, every cool grotto had its marble nymph smiling from a veil of flowers and every fountain reflected crimson, white, or pale pink roses, leaning down to smile at their own beauty. Roses covered the walls of the house, draped cornices, climbed pillars, and ran riot over the balustrade of the wide terrace, whence one looked down on the sunny Mediterranean, and the white-walled city on its shore.

"This is a regular honeymoon paradise, isn't it? Did you ever see such roses?" asked Amy, pausing on the terrace to enjoy the view, and a luxurious whiff of perfume that came wandering by.

"No, nor felt such thorns," returned Laurie, with his thumb in his mouth, after a vain attempt to capture a solitary scarlet flower that grew just beyond his reach.

"Try lower down, and pick those that have no thorns," said Amy, gathering three of the tiny cream-colored ones that starred the wall behind her. She put them in his buttonhole as a peace offering, and he stood a minute looking down at them with a curious expression, for in the Italian part of his nature there was a touch of superstition, and he was just then in that state of half-sweet, half-bitter melancholy, when imaginative young men find significance in trifles and food for romance everywhere.

He had thought of Jo in reaching after the thorny red rose, for vivid flowers became her, and she had often worn ones like that from the greenhouse at home. The pale roses Amy gave him were the sort that the Italians lay in dead hands, never in bridal wreaths, and for a moment he wondered if the omen was for Jo or for himself, but the next instant his American common sense got the better of sentimentality, and he laughed a heartier laugh than Amy had heard since he came.

"It's good advice, you'd better take it and save your fingers," she said, thinking her speech amused him.

"Thank you, I will," he answered in jest, and a few months later he did it in earnest.

Follow in the footsteps

At home

Orchard House was home to the Alcott family and is described in the novel. You can find it at 399 Lexington Road, Concord, Massachusetts. Admission: $7 (£4) adults, $4 children. The house can be viewed by guided tour only (001 978 369 4118; www.louisamayal cott.org/events).

Alcott's grave (along with those of other literary notables) can be visited at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery at Bedford Street/Court Lane, near the centre of Concord.

A coach runs daily between Concord and Boston (001 617 268 8890) but self-drive is strongly recommended because Concord's attractions are very spaced out (www.louisamay alcott.org/directions).

Where to stay

Colonel Roger Brown Suites Inn, at 1694 Main Street, Concord, offers two-bedroom suites for $130-$180 (001 978 369-9119; www.colroger brown.com). Alternatively, the Colonial Inn, at 48 Monument Square, offers one-bedroom suites from $275 midweek and $325 at weekends (001 978 369-9200; www.concords colonialinn.com).

Little Women, big screen

Alcott's classic has been adapted for the screen by several directors. In 1933, Katharine Hepburn starred as Jo March, in a film directed by George Cukor. Mervyn Le Roy directed his version of the book in 1949 casting Elizabeth Taylor as Amy March, and in 1994 the story was retold again by Gillian Amstrong, starring Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon.

Less memorable adaptations included musicals in the 1960s and a TV version made in 1951.

By Rhiannon Vivian