In previous years, we’ve just spent one night in Florence and left early the next morning to fly home.  Both times, we happened to be there on a Monday when all the museums were closed.  For this trip, we decided we would stay two nights, so we could visit a couple of the museums and see a bit more of Florence. The drive to Florence was uneventful.  Our driver dropped three women from our group at the airport before taking us to our hotel, the Piazza Pitti Palace.  We’ve stayed there twice before, and it was a wonderful experience both times.  We knew it was a small hotel with a locked gated entry, so we felt safe staying there by ourselves.  We couldn’t check into our room yet, so we dropped off our bags with the front desk and decided to walk the main drag to look for straps for

Our last day of the Prone to Wander retreat was spent at the farm (podere) with a relaxed schedule.  After a late breakfast, we gathered for a cooking class taught by Orsa, our host and the culinary mind behind the lunches and dinners we ate at the retreat.  She has her degree in culinary anthropology, so she has abundant knowledge of regional food, dishes, and cooking techniques. She taught us how to make Pappa al Pomodoro or “bread soup.”  With every meal, we were served a basket of Italian bread.  One of the hallmarks of the bread of this region is that it’s made without salt.  As Orsa said, it tastes “like nothing.”  It became a regular thing for our group to ask for the salt grinder so some could be added to a pool of olive oil for dipping. Apparently, though, there is some thought behind this bland bread

Our second-to-the-last day of the Prone to Wander retreat was spent at “home”.  Instead of taking the bus to an experience, the experience came to us.  Maria Giannini, a paper maker and bookbinder from Florence, came to teach a paper marbling and bookbinding workshop.  The interesting coincidence of Maria and me both teaching workshops at this retreat was that we had met six years earlier when I popped into her family’s pen-and-paper shop.  Their shop was just a short walk from our hotel in Florence, and I was enticed to go inside by the beautiful papers in their window display.  I discovered they carried a treasure trove of new-stock vintage and antique art and writing supplies, so I bought a bunch while I chatted with Maria’s uncle, Guido.  I had met a kindred spirit who loved and appreciated old things, from a different country, language, and generation, and Marian helped

One of the best things about traveling with a local guide is that you get to see the non-touristy places.  And, if you’re lucky, you might get a personal invitation to one of the best places in the city.  After touring Siena on our own, with some direction from Carolyn, our guide, our group met at the famous fountain in Siena’s shell-shaped piazza to go to Paola’s house for tea.  Paola is one of Carolyn’s Italian friends and a local “fixer” for her group tours.  She makes introductions and arranges experiences that are easier for a local than a foreigner.  She married a man whose family lived in Siena for many generations (in the owl contrada), so Siena is now her home.  If I remember correctly, her husband’s father or grandfather was an artist, and he converted the turret on the building owned by his family into a studio. Paola

On this trip to Italy, I’m glad I got to see a couple more ancient Tuscan cities – Arezzo and Siena.  I had been to Barga, Lucca, and Florence, and while there are similarities, each city and town has its own flavor.  Once we made our way through the densely packed market crowds of Siena, we had the most spectacular view of the city, medieval buildings with tiled roofs spilling down the hillside.  It was almost overwhelming to think we would be navigating our way through to the city center.  Mom and I stood for a while and just took it all in. We were in an open courtyard in front of a church, but we could see our way into the maze or narrow streets and alleys.  I put on Google navigation to guide us through.  Our target was the Pizza del Campo, the shell-shaped city center.  We decided

I was going to share about our day trip to Siena all in one post, but as I was uploading the photos, I realized the post would be ridiculously long with a million photos!  So, I decided to break it up into a few shorter, more easily-digestable posts.  Our group was going to Siena to shop at the weekly market, tour the city, and meet in the afternoon for tea at the home of one of our Italian hosts and Carolyn’s dear friend. You can find just about anything at the Mercato di La Lizza in Siena, every Wednesday morning – produce, clothing, coats, shoes, bags, crafts…  The thing our group was most excited about, though, was the “Linen Man”.  Orsa, our Italian host, has a direct line to him, so she let him know a group of American women was coming to shop and he should bring a good

The last time I posted about my time in Italy, I shared about my day spent “home” catching up on rest, writing in my journal, exploring, taking pictures, and sketching and painting.  If you missed that post, you can read about that day HERE.  In the early evening, the rest of our creative retreat group returned from a day visiting a local organic farm and making pizza from scratch.  As much as I didn’t want to miss out on that experience, the day I took was the one I needed.  It was refreshing and enriching, and I was excited to continue our curated Tuscany experience with dinner at a castle just down the road from the Podere where we stayed. The Folcieri family, who currently owns the castle, farm, and vineyard, bought it in the mid-1980s, when it was overrun with vines and vegetation, and the castle’s interior was an

After a late night of travel followed by two full days, touring Arezzo and teaching a creative workshop, I was feeling run down and decided to skip the group activity planned for the next day.  It was a tough call, but I wanted time to slow down and soak up our beautiful surroundings.  I didn’t want to feel rushed to go to the next place and do the next thing.  I also wanted time to catch up on my journal and to do some plein air painting. After breakfast, the rest of the group boarded the bus that took them about an hour away to a family-run farm for a pizza-making workshop.  I knew I was missing a special experience and, I was told, an amazing view, but I felt relief that I had a quiet day ahead of me. The podere (a rural Italian estate) was comprised of several