It is that which is between the palaces, that gives Italy its true beauty. If you took away every change that human hands have wrought on Italy’s landscape, it would a still be paradise. One tree, the Stone Pine, gives a distinct beauty the Italian landscape, yet we rarely hear it mentioned. Did human hands shape it to tower above and spread like a protective canopy? Or was it the ancient gods of Italy’s streams and mountains, who created it in its gracious form? Although I have seen it many times (and it impresses itself on any traveller arriving in Italy) only recently did I seek out its story. You…