WD Italian Writing Retreat: Behind the Itinerary
In my blog post announcing the Writer’s Digest Writing Retreat to Florence and the Tuscan countryside, I mentioned that writers throughout history have found inspiration from their time in the region. Because I so quickly fell in love with Florence, I’ve spent a lot of time reading books that take place in Florence and that are inspired by the sights there. It was reading about those specific places that informed what I made sure to visit, and subsequently what inspired the itinerary for this retreat. Here I’ll share some photos I took for my own writing reference and the reasoning behind the places we’ll see.
Day 2 – Our first full day. We begin with a city walk to get to our first museum because when you come to a place like Florence, it’s practically impossible to not want to see a few key sights right away, like the famed Duomo. Besides, walking is a tried-and-true way to get the creative juices flowing. The end game: the Uffizi Gallery, one of the most astounding collections of art in the world. No matter how many times you visit, you’ll never be able to take it all in, partially because the collection is so huge, but also because the building itself is a work of art—the ceilings, the hallways, even some of the rooms. And while there are some must-see paintings like Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” and “Primavera,” there are also some delightfully bizarre paintings like the ones below. I can only imagine the kinds of stories that can be told (or reimagined) about them!
Detail of a painting in the Uffizi Gallery.
A painting in the Uffizi Gallery begging for a story to be written about it.
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Across the Arno River, we’ll visit Casa Guidi, the home of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. It’s a bit like stepping back in time, when you enter their apartments, with their writing desks and couches. Next door, the church has the first lines of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “Casa Guidi Windows” etched into the stone. Their home—just a stone’s throw away from the Palazzo Pitti—offers a wonderful respite from the crowds. When I visited, I was the only guest and received a private tour of the rooms, and I could imagine Flush, the Browning’s dog, running around as described in Virginia Woolf’s biography of the dog, Flush.
Opening lines to Casa Guidi Windows by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Day 3 – We begin our day with another city walk, this one across the Ponte Santa Trinita, a bridge where each of the four corners has a statue depicting each season. These statues form a core part of Mary McCarthy’s Stones of Florence, a quintessential collection of essays about the post-war years in Florence.
Season statue on Ponte Santa Trinita.
Another season statue on Ponte Santa Trinita.
We’ll end up back at the Palazzo Pitti, but instead of just looking at the behemoth of a building from Casa Guidi, we’ll visit the Palatine Galleries, which much like the Uffizi, contain an overwhelming number of paintings and statues which are begging for stories to be written about them. From people whose stories could be imagined, to additional retellings of myths, to stories about how the enormous rooms and hallways were used during World War II, the possibilities for writers are endless.
Palazzo Pitti exterior.
Divine Comedy statue in the Palazzo Pitti
Behind the Palazzo Pitti is the equally huge and equally stunning Boboli Gardens. Whether you want to people watch—and there is plenty of that to be done here—or spend some quiet time on a bench hidden away by a pond with turtles and orange trees, this garden is big enough for it all. The July/August 2024 issue of Writer’s Digest is all about writing inspired by nature, and this garden is part of the inspiration behind the issue. We’ll have a guided tour together, but there will also be plenty of time for wandering off to write on your own.
Quiet pond in the Boboli Garden.
After we regroup, we’ll go back to the historic center of Florence, the Piazza della Signoria, to see part of the Carro Matto parade. One year, I accidentally found myself in the midst of a parade celebrating Liberation From the Fascists Day, and it was such a moving experience, to think about the history behind the day’s events, I vowed to go back for another parade. Carro Matto would seem to be a much more light-hearted event, with a large cart of precariously perched wine being drawn through the city by white oxen.
Day 4 – Starting with another city walk taking a new route (Haven’t you heard? Walking is good for writing!), back to the Piazza della Signoria. There are a few specific markers in this piazza that writers and artists (really all creative types) will appreciate that we’ll see before touring the Palazzo Vecchio. What’s so great about the Palazzo Vecchio is that it was once the city’s municipal building and it was also the Medici family home, so the rooms range from large halls where city events took place (and still do) to bedrooms and closets of the family. After reading Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, much of which takes place in the Palazzo Vecchio, one wonders: What other secrets and stories is this building holding?
Grand hall inside the Palazzo Vecchio.
Florence is home to an abundance of cathedrals and, if we’re being honest, some are more interesting than others. For creative people, Santa Croce is top of the list. A statue of Dante Alighieri watches the front entrance because inside are the final resting places and/or memorials to numerous Florentine writers (including Dante), artists, scholars, inventors, builders … the list goes on. It’s also a place where so much recent history has happened—namely, the flood of 1966—with markers indicating how shockingly high the waters rose and damages paintings still being restored. Visiting Santa Croce was inspired by Sarah Winman’s brilliant novel Still Life which captures the spirit and resilience of Florence and brought me to tears.
Painting being restored inside Santa Croce.
See those little white squares next to the windows? They denote the height of the flood waters during three floods centuries apart.
Finally, just around the corner from Santa Croce is the National Central Library of Florence, the largest library in Italy. Each time I visit Tuscany, I always make sure I see at least one or two new-to-me towns or sights. I love seeing my favorite places again, because somehow they never stop being beautiful or inspiring, but seeing new places makes each trip worth the visit. The Library will be my new place this go-round, and I can’t wait to experience it with you!