Dear Friend,
When the clocks change at this time of year it is much easier to be American than English! Somehow, Spring Forward, Autumn Back doesn’t have the same ring to it as Spring Forward, Fall Back, which tells us more vividly what we need to do to reset our timepieces and when.
So, in this season of ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness,’ we’ve just put our clocks back an hour. However... the fact that the time change doesn’t occur simultaneously all over the world makes it difficult for us to tell you accurately the start time for our new series of Watermill interactive online painting sessions. The new season starts again on 16 November, at 5pm Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), but when you join us it will be wisest to doublecheck precisely what 5pm GMT means where you live.
It is worth checking because our online sessions bring together hundreds of people from all over the world to paint along with some of our inspiring Watermill tutors, principally Mike Willdridge and Randy Hale. It’s a truly international ‘virtual community’ of like-minded people enjoying a creative and relaxing time in each other’s company.
You can see the dates for the opening sessions by clicking on the online page of the Watermill website. But please check when the live session starts in a your own time zone!
After this year’s season of creative courses at the Watermill, we managed to steal a few days holiday in the delightful city of Lisbon (elegant, ‘buzzy,’ but hilly!). Now we are back in Florence, taking bookings both for those interactive online painting sessions and for the 20+ week-long creative courses we’ve set up for next year at the Watermill itself. Below we have details of both.
We’d love you to join us, both ‘virtually’ on our winter/spring online courses AND on our ‘convivially creative’ week-long residential courses, in painting, creative writing, knitting and Italian language. And if you book one of the latter before the end of the year, you can also claim an Early Bird discount: £75 (British pounds) off any 2024 creative course booked before 31 December 2023.
So, if you want to enjoy inspiring teaching, warm hospitality, a beautiful setting, spectacular locations, delicious food and wine, the convivial company of like-minded people AND an Early Bird discount, don’t delay, just get that reservation in. Already nearly 200 people have signed up for next year’s creative courses, so it really is ‘Book Now to Avoid Disappointment!}
Here’s an impression of the Watermill painting week by Pam Smart, a guest on Tim Wilmot’s painting course this year....
Also in this edition:
- Dutch still-life masterpieces
- painting tutors of the month: Fiona Graham Mackay and Pamme Turner
- a new book by Watermill knitting tutor Susan Crawford
- how an agricultural incident sparked the most famous poem about a mouse
- why you shouldn’t correct someone’s Italian pronunciation
The four pictures at the top and bottom of this introductory page are of our tutors’ practice paintings for their online sessions. Top left: Mike’s Italian hilltop village, top right: Randy’s vertiginous cliff. Bottom left: Mike’s seaside bicycles, Mike’s girls drawing on beach.
Bring a partner: there's plenty for them to do
Let’s whistle up a week at the Watermill.
Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not
Your partner doesn't have to participate in the course, but they will be able to enjoy the wonderful hospitality of the mill and, whenever they want, to come out with you to our beautiful locations.
We also offer a range of Alternative activities for partners on all our courses, as well as a generous £GBP 250 discount if they share a room with you.
The Dutch: originators of still life painting
(Left) Clara Peeters,Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels, c. 1615, Mauritshuis,
The Hague, Netherlands. (Right) Pieter Claesz, Still Life with Musical Instruments,1623, Louvre, Paris, France
While Giorgio Vasari tried to convince us that Florence was the only cradle of the Renaissance, we have long had an admiration for the innovative art created independently in the Low Countries. Artists there not only invented painting in oils, but were also the originators of still lifes. So, we were delighted to enjoy a recent article in the online magazine DailyArt, celebrating some Dutch masters (and a mistress) of the genre.
The painting above left is by Clara Peeters, recognised as the ‘first lady’ of Dutch still lifes, although we do not know exactly when or where she was born when she died. The author of the DailyArt article, Irina Diana Calu, observes astringently: “This is not unusual for women in general at the 17th century, because they were not taken seriously as artists, as their main purpose was to become good wives and mothers.”
On the right is one of Bill’s favourites,Still Life with Musical Instruments by Pieter Claesz, with that voluptuous violin on the right just begging to be picked up and played.
You can read the whole DailyArt article and see more delicious Dutch paintings by clicking here.
Don’t miss out on that
Watermill discount
Don’t miss out on our Early Bird offer
As we said above, if you book one of our 2024 creative courses NOW, you can take advantage of our Early Bird offer: £(GBP) 75 off the cost of your course.
Already more than 180 people have signed up for next year’s creative courses, so it really is ‘Book Now to Avoid Disappointment'!
Paint this alluring Italian hilltop village with Mike Willdridge, in the first of our new series of Watermill interactive Internet sessions
Mike Willdridge’s first subject for the new season of online sessions comes courtesy of his recalcitrant camper van, christened Van Go, which it stubbornly refused to do, breaking down or seizing up no fewer than three times on Mike and his wife Sue’s journey home from their creative week at the Watermill earlier this year. (There are those, not us, who say that it serves them right for using the ridiculous American pronunciation of the post-impressionist painter, when everyone knows it should be Van Hghuhgh, to use the original Dutch pronunciation.)
Van No-go’s first tantrum stranded Mike and Sue near the Tuscan village of Vezzano. There are actually two villages, one called Borgo di Vezzano Inferiore, which looks up to Borgo di Vezzano Superiore, clinging to a Tuscan hillside.
Mike’s photo of Vezzano Superiore,
looking down on Vezzano Inferiore
Mike says: “My painting focuses on the buildings and their surrounding trees. The challenge of the painting is to simplify the view, especially the trees, and to emphasise the effect of light on the landscape; treatment of the sky is an important aspect of this. This is also an interesting exercise in perspective.”
Unlike many online painting tutors, Mike will not expect you to ‘look over his shoulder’ for a long demonstration, and perhaps be allowed to ask the odd question or two. No, you will be painting along at more or less the same time, trying out, step-by-step what he has shown you. Mike will demonstrate a tip or technique for only a few minutes before you start painting the same subject at home. Then, after you have had your turn, they will move on to the next part of the process. Lois will be on hand to feed your questions. The session will last two or three hours. (Mike asks you to make your own preliminary drawing before the session starts.)
Once you have registered you will be provided with two links. The first is the Zoom link for you to join the session, The second link is where you can download a source photograph of the scene that Mike has chosen for you, his practice painting to show you where you are heading, a simple line drawing, and a list of materials (including paper, paint and brushes) that he suggests you may need for the session.
A montage of students’ paintings of a French market, from a previous online session with Mike
After the event, you are invited to add your painting to the gallery and to view paintings by fellow students. Mike will give a short critique of every painting that is posted within seven days of the end of the session. We will also send you a link to a video within 48 hours of the end of the session, that will enable to you revisit Mike’s step-by-step teaching.
Our first 2023/2024 interactive online session:
16 November 2023 Mike Willdridge
A hilltop village in Liguria, Italy.
Simplify the view, emphasise the light.
To register, please click here.
Start time: (but please check your own time zone against GMT)
- 5 pm London, UK (Greenwich Mean Time, GMT)
- 6 pm Most of Europe
- Noon from Maine to Florida, USA
- 10 am in Denver (Mountain Time Zone) USA
- 9 am from Los Angeles to Seattle, USA
When you have painted with Mike online, why not join him for real at the Watermill in Tuscany Italy next summer? We would love to welcome you here.
Mike Willdridge
7 - 14 September 2024 - 4 or 5 places left
Watercolour and drawing (also gouache and acrylics)
To learn more about Mike and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Randy Hale’s first subject is the awesome Otter Cliffs: from travel sketch to finished painting
Not only is Watermill tutor Randy Hale a superb painter, he is also a great writer, too, judging by the entry in his travel journal about the Otter Cliffs in the Acadia National Park in Maine in the USA.
That’s his preliminary painting right for his first online session of the new season. Here’s his travel journal entry: “At that early morning hour the fog sat heavy, obscuring horizon in every direction. Hazy mist shrouded any sunlight. You could feel moisture in the air. Dew-coated rocks required careful navigation down a path thru trees and across exposed roots in order to reach the rocky cliffs.
“Once I emerged from the pine canopy out onto a rocky plateau, the view was startling. I moved swiftly across open rocky surfaces carefully watching where I stepped. Every direction was breathtaking.
“Rugged, sheer drop-offs of hundreds of feet pulled the eye down to roiling waves crashing over submerged rocks at the base of these steep precipices of granite. Gnarly trees clinging to rocky outcrops were testament to a constant onslaught of harsh Atlantic wind. Warm hues of granite up against cool darks of forest vegetation and exposed wet moss the low tide exposed, provided sharp dramatic contrast.
“The only noise at that hour was the constant rhythm of crashing waves and an occasional screech of gulls spiralling above the cliffs. Such stark and dangerous beauty of raw nature made me feel very small as I stood out on the edge looking down."
Come and listen to Randy waxing lyrical about his subject and paint these awe-inspiring cliffs along with him on 7 December 2023. (Details and a link below.)
Not only will Randy show you how to make the best finished painting from travel sketches, he also has tips on how to capture the momentin those sketches. Randy says: “The objective is to produce a finished composition which maximizes dramatic impact of the location as you recall it!”
Randy’s tips:
- Work quickly to absorb the location from various angles — take a series of reference photos.
- Do a few thumbnail sketches — make a loose watercolor sketch in your travel journal to capture the mood, atmosphere and lighting.
- Make some notes in the margins of your impressions.
- Once you return to your studio, pull everything together; arrange photos so you can look across all of them, including your sketches.
- Decide on best format (landscape or portrait) to achieve the greatest dramatic effect - it may differ from your original travel journal sketch.
- Make adjustments. Don’t be afraid to edit or rearrange objects to achieve a composition with maximum impact.
- From all the reference material assembled, decide how best to communicate the atmospheric and emotional response experienced while you were there on site, in that moment of discovery!
Here are the data and the date for Randy’s online interactive painting session:
7 December 2023 Randy Hale
Otter Cliffs. Acadia National Park, Maine, USA.
Capture the moment: from travel sketch to finished painting
To register, please click here
Start time: (but please check your own time zone against GMT)
- 5 pm London, UK (Greenwich Mean Time, GMT)
- 6 pm Most of Europe
- Noon from Maine to Florida, USA
- 10 am in Denver (Mountain Time Zone) USA
- 9 am from Los Angeles to Seattle, USA
For what happens after registration, please see the details in the story above about Mike’s interactive online course.
When you have painted with Randy online, why not join him for real at the Watermill in Tuscany Italy next summer? We would love to welcome you here (although it's full, we do get cancellations so it's worth joining the waiting list)..
Randy Hale
8 - 15 June 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolour
To learn more about Randy and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
You can also register for other upcoming online painting sessions in our series (more will be added over the coming weeks).
Watermill Painting Tutors of the Month: 1
Fiona Graham Mackay: Learning to see like an artist
Three of Fiona’s latest pictures, in all, watercolour and pastel
“By the end of the week you will have learned to look at the world with an artist’s eyes,” our new painting tutor Fiona Graham Mackay told our guests on her first painting course here this summer. Judging by their comments, she did just that: our guests loved looking at the Watermill and surroundings through artists' eyes and learning from Fiona’s enthusiastic expertise.
Fiona started her first talk in the Watermill studio with a simple technique to focus your attention:
Here are a few comments from this year’s guests. One said: “It is an aspiring artist’s delight, and I had a wonderful time, with the great company of fellow artists and splendid hosts -- and Fiona Graham Mackay is such a great tutor.” Another said: “There was all the time a tremendous feeling from the moment I came and met you in this wonderful peaceful place. Thank you very much for making my dream come true.”
Fiona Graham Mackay is one of Britain's foremost portrait painters (her sitters include Lord Carrington, Prince Michael of Kent and Seamus Heaney), but she is also a leading landscape painter, working in Britain and in many countries around the world.
We are delighted to welcome her back to the Watermill, painting en plein air in the glorious unspoiled scenery of rural Tuscany. Fiona teaches in oil, acrylic, watercolour and pastel. She says: “All mediums have their unique quality and I enjoy the flexibility of using a diversity of mediums.”
Come and join us and see the wonderful scenery of unspoiled rural Tuscan through an artist’s eyes.
Fiona Graham Mackay
17 - 24 August 2024 - still plenty of places
Painting en plein air (oil, acrylic, watercolour and pastel)
To learn more about Fiona and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Watermill Painting Tutors of the Month: 2
Pamme Turner
Pamme’s demonstration, in watercolour and gouache, of the famous Watermill demijohns (left)
and her ‘illustrated handout’ on outdoor sketching techniques (right)
Pamme Turner is a professional artist and college professor with multiple degrees in the Fine Arts. In her week-long workshop, designed for painters of all levels, you’ll learn to:
- Paint with both transparent and/or opaque art mediums “en plein air”, with an emphasis on beautiful watercolor techniques!
- Create successful COMPOSITIONS for both plein air and studio painting
- Create successful VALUE STUDIES which translate into strong watercolor or gouache paintings
- Understand LIGHT, SHADOW and ATMOSPHERE as it applies to outdoor painting
- Understand and adapt specialized drawing skills for watercolor and gouache painting
- Adapt strong details and simple figures in your watercolor and/or gouache paintings
- Create Pamme’s Essential ”Watercolor Art Notebook” with specialized art-note taking techniques (you will use these learned techniques in many future projects!)
Pamme says: “This workshop is designed to get you painting with great techniques and with confidence!”
a cottage in the foothills of the mountains
near the Watermill
A comment from a guest on Pamme’s course here last year: “Still coming back to reality after such a great experience at The Watermill. We were truly spoiled by Lois, Bill and Karsten, who really know how to make their guests feel like personal friends with nothing being too much trouble. Meals were superb and the wine flowed whilst we thoroughly enjoyed the company of the other guests. We both learnt so much from Pamme who gave her all to everyone at whatever level of painting experience we began the week with. One of our most memorable holidays to be sure...”
Another student said: “More educational than a whole college semester! And so much more fun!”
Pamme Turner
24 - 31 August 2024 - still plenty of places
Watercolour and gouache
To learn more about Pamme and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Our exhilarating 2024 painting courses
These are the inspiring, yet relaxing, painting courses planned for 2024.
Carl March
20-27 April 2024 - still plenty of places
Drawing and watercolours en plein air
To learn more about Carl and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Maggie Renner Hellmann
25 May - 1 June 2024 - 1 place left
‘Colourful & Expressive Oil & watercolour’ (also Travel sketching, acrylics, and pastel)
To learn more about Maggie and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Randy Hale
8 - 15 June 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolour
To learn more about Randy and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Keiko Tanabe
15 - 22 June 2024 - still plenty of places
Watercolours
To learn more about Keiko and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Michael Solovyev **NEW WATERMILL TUTOR**
22 - 29 June 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
‘Atmospheric Landscape in Watercolour: Studio/Plein Air’
To learn more about Michael and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Paul Talbot-Greaves
29 June – 6 July 2024 - 1 place left
Watercolour
To learn more about Paul and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Yong Chen **NEW WATERMILL TUTOR**
6 - 13 July 2024 - 3 or 4 places left
Watercolour
To learn more about Yong and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Sue Ford
13 – 20 July 2024
Watercolours - still plenty of places
To learn more about Sue and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Fiona Graham Mackay
17 - 24 August 2024 - still plenty of places
Painting en plein air (oil, acrylic, watercolour and pastel)
To learn more about Fiona and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Pamme Turner
24 - 31 August 2024 - still plenty of places
Watercolour and gouache
To learn more about Pamme and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Mike Willdridge
7 - 14 September 2024 - 4 or 5 places left
Watercolour and drawing (also gouache and acrylics)
To learn more about Mike and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Rebecca de Mendonça
14 - 21 September 2024 - still plenty of places
Pastels
To learn more about Rebecca and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Tim Wilmot
28 September - 5 October 2024 - 2 places left
Watercolours
To learn more about Tim and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Grahame Booth
5 - 12 October 2024 - 2 places left
Watercolours
To learn more about Grahame and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Susan's new knitting book out soon
Congratulations to Watermill knitting tutor Susan Crawford whose new book, Echoes: 24 Modern Knits Inspired by Iconic Women, is to be published at the beginning of next month.
Susan says: “Echoes is an evocation of the incredible women - both real and fictional - who have inspired and shaped me. The designs tribute to authors and activists, musicians and artists, and more, for a versatile collection that I hope you will love as I do! Each design is accompanied by an essay discussing its inspiration and why they have been so important to me.”
The designs were photographed (See above) high on a fell above Lake Coniston in the Lake District and this lovely landscape is present throughout the book.
Susan’s versatile collection features a variety of styles and techniques - there is colourwork, lace, cables, texture and stocking stitch. It includes cardigans, sweaters, vests, and a dress, as well as shawls, socks, hats, mittens, a blanket and even a scarflette/hair tie. Susan created the designs to resemble heirloom pieces, well-loved and handed down through generations, with stories interwoven into their fabric.
Susan says: “I hope the book provides you with many things you would like to knit and that you will turn to this book again and again and that it will become as dog-eared, worn and loved as any novel that has been read and re-read”.
You can pre-order your copy by clicking here for dispatch on 1st December.
Why not make your own heirlooms knitting along with Susan on her course at the Watermill next year? We still have a few places left.
Susan Crawford is a knitwear designer, author, fashion historian and entrepreneur – running her own business, creating and manufacturing yarn and publishing her well-known book titles including A Stitch in Time, Evolution and The Vintage Shetland Project, cherished by knitters worldwide. Her yarns are spun locally from British-bred sheep. Susan is particularly celebrated for her Fair Isle designs and her love of colour.
She has combined these twin passions for the special project for you to knit during her your week here: a beautiful colour-work cowl, inspired by the Tuscan countryside surrounding the Watermill.
Our inspiring knitting tutors in 2024
Susan Crawford **NEW WATERMILL TUTOR**
27 April - 4 May 2024 - 4 or 5 places left
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Susan and her course at the mill, please visit her 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Norah Gaughan
4 - 11 May 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Norah and her course at the mill, please visit her 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Louisa Harding
11 - 18 May 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Louisa and her course at the mill, please visit her 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Debbie Abrahams
18 - 25 May 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Debbie and her course at the mill, please visit her 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Sylvia Watts-Cherry **NEW WATERMILL TUTOR**
1 - 8 June 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Sylvia and her course at the mill, please visit her 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Don't forget your partner!
And don’t forget that your friend or partner doesn’t need to participate in the creative course, whether it’s painting, language or writing.
We offer them a range of Alternative activities for partners on all our courses, as well as a generous £GBP 250 discount if they share a room with you.
A homeless mouse in November
Copyright Edinburgh Sketcher
What’s the connection between probably the most famous poem about a mouse and the month of November?
The answer, of course, is Robert Burns’ To a mouse...
It begins:
Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickerin brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!
The poem was based on a real event, when Burns inadvertently destroyed a fieldmouse’s nest while ploughing, and watched the tiny inhabitant scuttling away. And the month? November, of course! The full title of the poem it is To a Mouse: On Turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785.
The wee mousie has even been celebrated
on a British postage stamp
The poem also contains the immortal line: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.”
If you’d like to refresh your memory of this wonderful poem, you can read it all on the Poetry Foundation website by clicking here.
If you would like to learn how to write compellingly about incidents in your own life, you could do no better than to join Jo Parfitt on her Writing Your Life Stories week-long course at the Watermill. We still have a few places left.
Jo will be with us for another fantastic writing week from Saturday 21 September to Saturday 28 September 2024. While concentrating on autobiography and memoir, the course gives insights and advice for writing in any genre.
Jo Parfitt is an author, journalist, teacher, blogger, conference speaker and poet. She has published 32 books herself, has helped more than 250 authors get into print and more than 2,000 people to begin writing. Jo's a compassionate, inspiring, and encouraging teacher: her motto is 'sharing what I know to help others to grow'.
The Write Your Life Stories creative writing course is designed to help you produce your best work, to find your true writer's 'voice' and to write authentically. Among other things, you’ll discover the secret of SPICE, the seven steps to writing life stories. Jo says: "The course at the watermill will provide a safe haven in which to unlock your creativity, write from your heart and hone your writing craft. You will be empowered to write in a compelling way, bringing your experiences to life."
Enjoying creative conviviality
on Jo’s watermill writing course
The workshop will include several methods and genres and is perfect for anyone wanting to write about their own lives for an effective journal, memoir or blog. If you would enjoy an injection of inspiration in a calm and supportive environment, this course is for you. It is appropriate for students of any level.
Here are some comments from guests on Jo’s previous courses at the Watermill: “The most magical trip to Tuscany, which will stay with me forever!” “It is a very special and beautiful place, and everything was organised so perfectly. Jo is a great tutor, and we all had an amazing time.”
Jo Parfitt
21 – 28 September 2024 - 4 or 5 places left
Write your life stories
To learn more about Jo and her course at the mill, please visit please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
a collection of
mouthwatering bruscette
Why it’s showing off to correct someone’s Italian pronunciation
After you’ve lived in Italy for a while it is almost impossible not to correct someone’s pronunciation of Italian words, like bruschetta, gnocchi or Bolognese. But after reading the words of a Chinese singer actress, Feifei Wang, on Quora Digest, an online forum, we are trying our best not to do so.
Feifei, who lives in Seattle, Washington, USA, says: “People who insist on pronouncing certain Italian and French words the “right” way are usually non-Italian/French native speakers. But, you also notice that people who nitpick food item pronunciations almost always focus on Italian and French food. Rarely, if ever, do you hear people correct others on pronunciations of Chinese food, Korean food, or Native American food.”
She says that the reason is ‘language privilege’. In the USA for example, English is the privileged language, conveying a certain status of the speaker and, although it wasn’t always so, “Italian and French are privileged languages, too, so that if you speak either or both of them you are perceived as of higher social status.”
Feifei adds: “So, people are more motivated to correct others when it comes to French and Italian pronunciation because it is a status symbol. This language nitpicking is a (not so) humble brag about how you’re rich and cultured. You learn about French food in France when you’re regularly vacationing in France, and you dine with French people, and you know your high-end cuisines.
“And that’s the reason this kind of nitpicking is annoying for everyone because even if you don’t know about the language privilege, most people instinctively know the nitpicking of pronunciation has nothing to do with wanting to help others or protect the purity of French culture. No. It is about making yourself look better.
Acciughe: Bless you!
“So don’t do it. It’ll only make you look like a pretentious prick.”
We would hate to be that, Feifei, so we’re going to try to leave bru-shetta, pista-chio and bol-og-nays uncorrected, but it is difficult to keep the lips zipped. And as for anchovies, acciughe (atchoo-gay), they sound like a sneeze, so Bless you!)
Why not come and learn more about the beautiful Italian language on our unique week-long course next autumn? We promise not to nitpick about pronunciation and accent. You will learn a lot, though, and it is great fun.
This really is a ‘course with a difference.’ Not only are there formal lessons on the vine verandah (some 20 hours in the week), but we also make trips and excursions to savour the natural beauty of Lunigiana, the area around the mill, to explore its history and culture, to sample its traditional foods – and above all, to meet the people, speak Italian, and practise what you’ve learned.
The Watermill has teamed up again with tutor Giulia Balestri for a week in which people can learn Italian in the most natural and enjoyable way. Your immersion into the language and culture of real Italians will be customised for you, to suit your curiosity and your interests, helping you to treasure everything you learn and make it a seamless part of who you are.
Soaking up the Italian language and the evening sun in the Watermill walled garden
Here are comments from previous participants:
"A super language week: well organised giving us a taste of the ‘real Italy.’ Despite the disparity in ability our tutor managed to help all of us towards a better understanding and production of the Italian language. The lessons were fun, interactive and helped me enormously. The accommodation was great and the camaraderie which evolved was, I'm sure, due to your relaxed and welcoming approach to your guests."
"I had a wonderful time on the language course and laughed so much! Our tutor was fantastic and designed a course that we could all follow at our own level, complete beginners to quite a bit more than complete beginners."
Giulia Balestri
12 - 19 October 2024 - still plenty of places
Learning Italian with the Italians
For more details on Giulia's 2024 course, please visit the 2024 Tutor programme page.
Everything's included in your watermill painting holiday, creative writing holiday, knitting week or Italian Language course
Don’t forget that everything is included in the cost of a painting holiday, writing, knitting, or language holiday: tuition, accommodation (including all linen and towels), pre-dinner aperitifs, all meals and local transportation (including transfers to Pisa airport; an excursion by train to visit the ancient walled city of Lucca or the stunning seaside villages of the Cinque Terre).
All you have to do is to get to Pisa airport and we do the rest.
Whether you're travelling alone or with a partner you can be sure of a warm welcome, and that you'll be well looked after. We have built our reputation on the comfort of the mill and the care we provide.
We very much look forward to welcoming you to the mill and, for those of you who have already tasted the many delights at The Watermill at Posara, we look forward to welcoming you back.
With very best wishes a tutti
Lois and Bill Breckon