The thing about Vita Sackville-West is that she looked Italian.

Which isn't at all odd since her grandmother was Italian.

When Virginia Woolf wrote her celebration of Vita Sackville-West, "Orlando," the Italian part is gone, all though I suspect the Italian part might have been part of the strong pull--something different.

Virginia Woolf's daily life had the variety to be expected of the daily life of someone who was a writer in not great health. Dull-looking. Vita Sackvile-West was also a writer, among other thing, and did lots of other things. She was and is a famous gardener. That is probably what she was remember for most, because English gardeners are so intense, and still can visit the garden designed and created from nothing by Sackville-West and her husband, Harold Nicolson.