Laura’s Blog

Today, we had the privilege of getting a private tour of the Palace, one of the properties owned by the Budini-Gattai family, who also own the Villa where we just had our ten-day writing/yoga/cultural exploration retreat. Rodolfo, our host at the Villa, the 12th of 13 children of his generation of Budini-Gattais, and his wife, […]

I’m going to miss these meals—today is our last full day at the Villa. We transfer back to Florence tomorrow. 10 of us will be doing an in-depth tour of Florence for four days. Everyone else flies home or goes on to other destinations tomorrow. This is the very beginning of olives-the flowers are coming

Yesterday, because we had an all-day outing to Lucca, we didn’t have time for our usual sit-down writing class, so I gave my students a travel assignment: “While you’re in Lucca, look for a story. Find a moment in your day that you can write about. It can be something you experienced, an interaction you

Every day at lunch and dinner, my co-leader Graseilah Coolidge rings a fork on a glass to get everyone’s attention, stands and describes what we’re eating for each course of our three course meal. Here she is introducing the second course of our lunch today. Turn up your volume.

We did one of my favorite writing prompts in class this morning, based on this poem: Imperfectionby Elizabeth Carlson I am falling in love with my imperfectionsThe way I never get the sink really clean,forget to check my oil,lose my car in parking lots,miss appointments I have written down,am just a little late. I am

We spent the day in the walled city of Lucca today, an all day outing from our home base at the Villa. I spent the first couple of hours on a rented bike on top of the city’s walls, a 4.2 kilometer loop, then opted out of the group tour and wandered off on my

If you’ve been following my Tuscany Virtual Vacation blog for the last week, you might think all we do day after day is eat phenomenal food, look at remarkable beauty, and have amazing outings. But actually, we spend several hours in writing class every morning. Here’s one of the writing exercises I gave my students

First course lunch: fennel salad Wine tasting at Sting’s villa winery. Tuscany, day 4.

We spent our late morning following the truffle hunter Diego and his two specially trained truffle hunting dogs, Nutella and Lightning, through the woods, waiting for the dogs to alert and sniff out truffles for Diego to pry out of the rich soil. After observing the hunt, we returned to the il Sole di Nebbliano

Click the image above to watch the video. When you miss your dog back home, there’s always Kenny. All the dog lovers on our trip LOVE him. Photos by @Suzanne Kronisch. I just taught her how to airdrop! An unexpected moment of exquisite beauty. A field of perfect Flanders Poppies while we were following Diego

I don’t know why, but even after teaching thousands of classes for 25 years, and dozens of retreats around the world, I’m still always nervous before a first class, with a brand-new group of writers. But as soon as we settled in and began, the magic was there. That first sense of trust and connection,

Click the image above for a quick tour of the outside of the Villa at the start of the retreat.