2019 Summer Recap

The afternoon light in Cortona is hard to resist!

Ciao dear friends, it's been too long...

​This summer was an absolutely wanderful whirlwind of exploring new cities, eating delicious food, making new friends and creating amazing memories. I first traveled through Berlin, Amsterdam and London with my boyfriend and his family, before we headed to Tuscany to prep and host the retreats! After the retreats wrapped up, I flew south (waaay south) to Africa to join my boyfriend on a safari in Kenya and a canoe trip in Zambia. It was quite an adventure!

​There are SO many photos on Instagram across all my social media accounts...Sketchy Notions for peeks inside my 8th sketchbook, my own personal account for little memories, and, of course, the Wanderful Retreats Instagram for all things retreat related! But I wanted to share a few of my favorite photos and memories from the 2019 Wanderful Retreats in Castiglion Fiorentino and Lucca! 

This summer I was lucky to have two small and wonderful groups of ladies join me on both the Tuscan Villa Retreat in Castiglion Fiorentino and the Historic Center of Lucca Retreat! Both weeks had their own personalities and went SO well! Outside of a toasty week during our time in Lucca (thank dio for air conditioning!), it's hard to find anything to complain about...besides having to go home!

This summer we stayed in a lovely villa closer to the actual township of Castiglion Fiorentino. We were so close that we had this amazing view everyday right from our own private pool. ​

And the pool...oh, the pool! Being an avid swimmer, it's such a treat being able to wake up and jump in for a few laps before starting the day. In the evening it was also the best place to wait for the fireflies to make their nightly appearance! While I didn't catch any hedgehogs this year, this villa sealed it's spot as my favorite villa to host retreats at!

Besides our day trips to Assisi and Cortona to visit our friends at Del Brenna Jewelry, we also visited our villa hosts, the Buccelletti family, for a wine tasting and tour of their farm and vineyard. This wall of jasmine smells amazing and is just buzzing with bees! 

The view from our villa was just incredible too. Every evening we were treated to an epic sunset with Castiglion silhouetted in the distance. It's hard to believe that 10 years ago this summer I was just beginning to find my love for watercolors along these same streets that I now get to share with my groups. While it was really hard to say farewell to this sweet group, it was exciting to make the drive north back towards Florence to head to Lucca and prepare for week two of retreats! 

Lucca...how I love thee... 

There's so much to explore in this charming town. It's even more fun exploring this city with ladies that have never been here before! Every street is brand new and charming and full of new things to discover, or rediscover for me.  

For such a small city too, it's amazing how many churches there are hiding inside the ancient walls. It's hard to pick a favorite but San Martino and its piazza are likely my favorite. It's just a couple streets away from our apartments in the center of town, and my go-to route to the train station always takes me past it. While we were just a couple weeks shy of seeing the Antique Festival in this very piazza, it's still a wonderful spot to sit and people watch throughout the day from the shade.​

On our excursion to visit Colle di Bordocheo for our Lucchese wine tasting, our sweet driver stopped along the way in front of this amazing villa! It turned into quite the perfect photo op for our group! These ladies had the cutest hats so it was fun to create some photos like I did in the summer of 2018 of my sister and her darling hat. 

Lucca is one of those wonderful places where it's hard to find a bad meal. Between testing the Tordelli Lucchese (a local pasta specialty) at as many restaurants as possible, it's also a great town for gelato!

One of my favorite discoveries during this week was this glorious cup of fuchsia sorbet at La Bottega del Gelato. Conveniently down the street from our apartments, Bottega easily has the best gelato in Lucca, and some of the more inventive flavors. 

This brightly colored cup of magic was beet root, ginger, apple and lime. Odd...maybe...but SO delicious that I ordered it three times throughout the week! 

No trip to Lucca is complete without a visit to my favorite vine covered wall! We had such a lovely week sipping Hugos and Spritz at the silliest "chicken bar" in the center of town, listening to the concerts from our patio, chatting and enjoying good food around town and even just at home with the comfort of the air conditioning. 

It truly was a magical summer. I feel so lucky to have been able to host these two lovely groups of women and I can't wait for what summer 2020 will bring!