Meet the Italian Language holiday team

Francesca la Sala

Francesca la Sala has been teaching Italian since 2007. She loves meeting people of all ages and cultures. She is also a nature lover and a cognoscente of Lunigiana, the beautiful area of Tuscany surrounds the Watermill. This is the land of her forefathers, where she was raised. Francesca has an artistic background and has a passion for the figurative and graphic arts, particularly from the Renaissance period and from prehistory; this love adds a further dimension to her teaching.

The Watermill at Posara

Lois and Bill Breckon, who own and run the watermill have more than 25 years’ experience in running relaxing, inspiring and fun-filled creative holidays and courses. They are world-famous for their creative writing courses and for their painting courses with renowned international tutors, attended by students from all over the world (75 different countries at the last count). Lois and Bill live at the Watermill in the Summer and in Florence in the Winter. Both their daughters went to school in Italy.Lydia has just gained her Masters as a Composer in Musical Theatre at the Tisch School of New York. Lara has just graduated MA in Italian and French Literature at Oxford and is returnng there for an MSc in Criminology.

Lois has a track record of successful entrepreneurship with particular experience in publishing and marketing. For many years she worked alongside Bill in Media Alliance, the international marketing and communications consultancy. She also organised the restoration of a 16th-century castle in Scotland, establishing it as an acclaimed centre of excellence for residential painting and creative writing courses. She is currently concentrating on her musical studies, working towards a PhD on religious music in Renaissance Florence.

Bill’s early career was as a writer and broadcaster specialising in medical topics and in current and consumer affairs: it spanned newspapers and magazines, radio, television and books. He set up and ran the international Media Alliance communications agency, but is now largely retired. He has recently published a detective story, A Matter of Perspective set in Renaissance Florence where the hero is the miller's son at Posara! His latest book in progress is a series of essays on lesser-known Italian towns, called Just in Time for an Aperitivo.