Monet and Renoir: the genius and the hot-water bottle
We call our Watermill courses ‘convivial creativity’ and we believe that creativity is often a communal, collaborative affair. There is individual genius, of course, but for it to flourish fully…
Category Archives: General
Fennel Bake
Baked fennel with white wine, cream and Parmesan Here’s a tasty dish we usually serve to our guests as part of a buffet Sunday lunch — and hear many…
Sprezzatura! A cool Italian word that could have been invented for Lois
We don’t have a specific word for it in English, but sprezzatura, first coined by an Italian diplomat in the 16th Century, could have been invented for Lois. It…
The pacco da giù, Why food parcels travel from the poorer south to the richer north of Italy.
In general, the north of Italy is far richer than the south. Many people from southern regions like Calabria, Campania, Basilicata and Puglia, ‘emigrate’ to the north to work,…
Lest we forget: everyday reminders of past terrors on our Florence doorstep
Embedded in the pavement by the front door of houses next to our apartment building in Florence are half a dozen small square brass plaques which force us to remember…
An offbeat glance at openings at the Watermill
Doug Freerksen is an artist, designer, sculptor and, like us, a passionate restorer of old buildings. Doug, from Oak Park, Illinois, in the United States, has been involved in the…
Demijohns: delightful to look at, but difficult to paint
They call them damigiane in Italy – demijohns to us Brits – elegant large bottles, usually in dark green or brown, and used in the past for storing olive oil…
Our ‘Rolling Stone’ gathers moss
He doesn’t look like Jagger. He doesn’t move like Jagger. But in his own way he might be regarded as a ‘rolling stone.’ He is stone, of course, and…
The serendipitous story of The Watermill at Posara
We first set eyes on the mill in 1989. One of us wandered down the millstream and, quite simply, fell in love. At the time, the property wasn’t particularly pretty,…
Knitting tourism essentials: what to pack for a week of wool and wonder in Italy
We’ve welcomed knitters from all over the world to the Watermill, and over the years, we’ve noticed something charming: many of them arrive with suitcases that are, shall we say,…
This Watermill bedroom is named after a strange old bird
Continuing our notes on the early Renaissance artists after whom our Watermill bedrooms are named*, today it’s the turn of Paolo Uccello. Uccello (1397-1475,) was a pioneer of the use…
Convivial creativity at The Watermill
The trip of a lifetime – or two! We must be doing something right! From the beginning of this season’s unique ‘convivial creativity’ courses, we have been overwhelmed by the…