Renewing Your Creative Spirit in Tuscany

Join photographer and artist Gina Grillo for a 7-day 7-night stay in a historic Tuscan monastery for this once in a lifetime creative vacation designed to enliven your senses, and renew your creative spirit!

Enjoy gourmet meals prepared by our private chef and daily workshop activities each with a focus on a different art form, giving you an opportunity to sample new ways to express your creativity.  Among the activities you can:

* Paint your first watercolor
* Elevate your photographic skill
* Create a found object collage
* Prepare an authentic Tuscan meal using herbs picked from the Chianti hills

...and much more. Customized daily excursions will complement workshop activities.  Those will include:

* Guided walk through the Chianti vineyards and nearby historic sites
* Spend a day exploring the streets of medieval Siena, its spectacular Duomo and crypt
* Shop for ingredients for cooking class in traditional outdoor market
* Get a personal tour of a family Chianti winery
* Meet with an Italian artist in their studio
* Visit local craftsmen at work in various nearby hilltowns
* Learn how to taste wine with our personal sommelier

Our "insider excursions" are designed so you`ll experience Tuscany not as a tourist but as a connoisseur of Italian culture. Enjoy selected evening activities such as concerts, olive oil tasting and a lecture on the history of our monastery and its incredible restoration.

Tuscany is a place for uninterrupted creativity and inspiration, a place that fills your senses and demands that you live in the present moment. Come with your enthusiasm -- and experience the Tuscan countryside as the site for your own personal inspiration.

The Food:

for us at Il Chiostro, helping our guests to experience the food in one of the earth`s richest, most sensual areas is our pleasure. Chianti, the part of Tuscany where we are, is Italy`s famous wine and olive oil producing region. Here we want to expose you to the wonders of simple Italian cooking. We pick wild herbs to create our own twist on a pasta dish, shop in local markets for fresh mozarella and peccorino, pick mulberries from the tree in our garden for tarts and search for the best of Tuscany to serve you at our dinner tables. Tuscan cuisine is a simple art that has been refined over the centuries to surprise our palates while the wine comforts our souls. Come explore what food can really be all about.

Dinner on the terrace of San Fedele

Price: $2,295*; $1.995 for non-participants
Supplements:  $550 for single room; $150 p/p for suite, if available

Includes:

* Shared double room in restored monastery
* Daily traditional breakfast and dinner, including wine
* Daily workshop activities and excursions
* Excursion to Siena
* ½ day excursion to nearby hilltown (Monteriggioni, Radda, Volpaia…)
* Pick up from Florence train station at 3:30pm on arrival Saturday
* Transfer to bus/train station in Siena on final day

Does Not Include:

* Airfare
* Lunch (Lite lunch available for 15 euros when we are not out on excursion)
* Art supplies
* Independent meals and sight-seeing

Price: $2,295

For more information on Renewing Your Creative Spirit in Tuscany, please see:

ilchiostro.com/