Welcome to our 2nd Casale di Clio Newsletter, which we send out as our thoughts turn towards our upcoming 2026 season. We have plenty of news to share, including photos of the Art Barn, completed last Summer just in time for our first Art Course, as well as some photos of artworks created here throughout 2025. We thought we would start with an image of a warm Spring day (above) rather than our chilly Befana day snap towards the bottom of this Newsletter!
Wishing you a healthy, creative, productive and inspiring 2026 – and hoping to see some of you back here some day!
Adrian & Tizi
Season 2025 Review
Over the course of 2025, and into the New Year, we have hosted a wide variety of interesting and talented guests, who have enthusiastically embraced the Casale di Clio offering – bringing a broad range of projects to work on, and/or enjoying the opportunity for reflection and relaxation without the pressures of a highly-structured retreat. We would like to say a huge “thank you!” to all of you who have validated our vision of what we believed Casale di Clio could offer!
Each week differed in terms of the energies, interests and projects that our guests have brought and across the year guests have enjoyed several local events – from the summertime delights of the annual Vetteglia Festa and the San Cassiano 4-evening Festa, to the chillier wintertime enjoyment of the more than 100 presepe (Christmas nativity scenes) on display up at Montefegatesi. This year also saw the Bagni di Lucca Soul Weekender, with music and dancing in the squares of Bagni di Lucca as well as a couple of late-nighters in the Casino. It is amazing how quickly the year passed!
Towards the end of August 2025 we hosted our first Art Course: Pen and Ink Drawing + Colour – with teaching by trained artist Deenagh Miller. Photographs of the week, including some of the artwork produced, can be seen on our website page advertising the 2026 event, which will be held at the end of May (see below).
Here are some photos of the Art Barn, newly completed for the course, and available for art/yoga or as an alternative writing space throughout the warmer months:
Gifted Artworks and Books
A number of guests very kindly gifted us art that they had created during (or after) their stay here. Below are works by (in clockwise order, from top left) Grace Westwood, Sally Tyrell, Gregg Simpson and John Ronayne (John also kindly gifted an LED desk lamp and magnifying glass for the library, for use by future guests):
A number of books were also gifted onto our bookshelves by guests, including an anthology of poetry from Eleonora Cattafi, our first guest of 2025, and a couple of lovely books from Julianne Davidow – see the photo below, which also contains the remains of a stack of bookmarks gifted by guest and author Carol M. Cram (with some no-doubt still keeping places in books around the world!).
We should also give thanks to those guests who brought thoughtful treats such as artisanal coffee, chocolate and beer – all very much appreciated!
We do not expect nor encourage guests to bring/leave gifts, and are surprised and appreciative when they do so, especially when the gift has been created during guests’ precious time here!
Guests’ Publicity for Casale di Clio
We are always grateful when guests give us mentions on instagram, facebook etc. – having been open for only two seasons we are still building a profile and every little helps. We must give some ‘honorable mentions’ to some of our guests who have gone a little beyond what we might have hoped for: author Carol M. Cram created a very comprehensive article of her and artist husband Gregg’ Simpson‘s stay for her Artsy Traveler website (including a great video of the swallows!); Catriona Duggan put together a fantastic video reel of her stay for her Instagram account (if you watch it on the Instagam platform you will be able to hear the soundtrack, which really does enhance it); and Business Traveller Middle East editor Yi-Hwa Hanna gave us a mention in an article that she wrote on historical/heritage accommodation for the magazine’s January 2026 edition. Thank you to everyone who mentioned us on social media, or to their networks/groups.
2026 Small Group Art Course
We will be following up last year’s successful course taught by Deenagh Miller, a British artist resident in Bagni di Lucca, with another Small Group Art Course at the end of May 2026. the Course Week will be an opportunity to spend more time with in-depth tutoring during the mornings, and perhaps exercising those new skills in the afternoon (or just enjoying the locale). In recognition that the 2025 course freely moved beyond the central theme of Pen & Ink drawing, this year’s event will be pitched as a more general Small Group Art Course (albeit with Pen and Ink providing the initial impetus), with the flexibility for attendees to follow their own interests (with support/guidance from Deenagh) in terms of media and technique. Please pass on the news of the course to anyone whom you think might be interested. Depending on how bookings go for the May course, it might be repeated at the end of August.
‘Hybrid‘ (residential-online) Retreats
You may be aware of the various online learning opportunities that are available these days – including ‘delivery-on-demand’ offerings such as Masterclasses and BBC Maestro, as well as ‘live-delivery’ courses such as the internationally-known Arvon online writing courses. These are usually experienced at home by learners/participants, but we have hit upon the idea of ‘Hybrid Residential-Online Retreats‘. Why not come to Tuscany and enjoy your online learning here – enjoying all of the facilities of Casale di Clio – and everything that rural Italy offers, from traditional rustic trattoria, local festivals, and great hiking and views. We have put together a website page that provides more detail and sets out how such ‘hybrid retreats’ might work.
Local Events to look out for in 2026
There are a range of local events (some more local than others!) that might be enjoyed before, during or after a stay here at Casale di Clio. Here are just a selection (we really should put together a comprehensive list on the website! – something for the wishlist when we have some spare time – in the meantime you’ll probably find a whole lot more if you google “what’s on Bagni di Lucca” or “what’s on Lucca”):
- Vetteglia Summer Festa: we cannot yet confirm if this will happen again this year – but judging on the success of the last 2 years we think it highly likely! It usually happens on a Saturday in July, the memorial day of the Blessed Virgin Mary (18th July 2026), when there is usually also a Mass in the village chapel. The festa follows, with food, drink, music and dancing – all for a reasonable price. Since we work to a Saturday-Saturday booking week, this would mean booking to stay for a week-beginning 18th July (we are unlikely to accept a different/shorter booking pattern this week, since that might prevent us filling the week at what will be a popular time). We cannot guarantee that the event will run again this year (contact us for an update) – although that date usually coincides with a similar festa up at Montefegatesi, which would be a suitable alternative.
- San Cassiano di Controne Summer Festa: usually a 3-day weekend event at the end of July/start of August (2026 dates to be confirmed), comprising surprisingly inexpensive food and drink consumed at long trestle tables under canvas up at the playing fields – a very sociable event, with traditional music and dancing. It’s within walkable distance from Casale di Clio too! (40 minutes walk each way);
- Lucca Summer Festival (well-known popular music acts): held throughout June and July, the 2026 offering already includes the likes of Jamiroqai, Ronnie Wood, David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) – with further guests soon to be announced. Although some of these events sell out reasonably quickly, there are often standing tickets available for a little longer. Unless you are bringing your own transport to Casale di Clio to get in and out of Lucca (or plan to stay there on the night of a concert, traveling in and out by public transport) we recommend scheduling a stay here before or after attendance at a Lucca event .
- Bagni di Lucca Soul Weekender – it has now been confirmed that the event will be repeated in September 2026 (Friday 11th – Sunday 13th) – more news on the Bagni di Lucca Soul Weekender facebook page. The event runs over Friday, Saturday, Sunday and we are likely to head down for either Friday or Saturday (when a taxi back can probably be arranged), and maybe the Sunday afternoon session, when we’ll drive down and up. We will maintain our Saturday-Saturday booking pattern here – i.e., it will not be possible to book to stay for 5 days covering the weekend, since this would effectively prevent us from taking full-week bookings on either side of the weekend. If you want to attend the event while staying here then, the choice will be to book the week including the Friday session at the end of it, or the week with the Saturday and Sunday sessions at the start of it (or book to stay both weeks!). Either way, make sure to pack your dancing shoes!
Bagni di Lucca News
Plans have been revealed for a major redevelopment of Villa Fiori in Bagni di Lucca. The rather sad-looking, but still majestic building opposite the Casino (on the other bank of the river Lima) is to be renovated as a hotel – but the most exciting aspect of plans is the intention to also build a modern spa complex (The Glass House – see above) in the grounds of the villa – utilising natural thermal spa waters from the hill opposite. The planning and project development phases will take some time (and it is likely that the project is contingent on one or two matters), but if this comes to fruition it will be a real boon for the town and the broader area. For details of the project, including impressive ‘fly-through’ animations, take a look at the Villa Fiori website.
In the meantime, the Bernabo Spa in Bagni di Lucca remains open of course! We, and several of our guests, have attended the Bernabo spa – and we can all highly recommend it!
2026 season dates
We open for the 2026 season on Saturday 28th March, and will remain open until early November – we may then re-open for ‘Slow Christmas & New Year‘ (see below).
‘Slow Christmas/New Year‘: Maybe again in 2026/27?
We had a very successful festive season opening in 2025 (continuing to include the New Year) – this was our pitch:
“Would you like to look forward to something other than the usual over-commercialised Festive period? Do you think that Christmas has too much rushing around, too many onerous social commitments, and that dreadful FOMO (Fear of Missing Out – whether on parties or presents, or just the ‘good time’ that family and friends pressure us to have!)?! Then consider a relaxing Slow Christmas and/or New Year Getaway – where the mantra is ‘no pressure-no stress’”.
We will make a decision on whether to open for the 2026/27 festive season later in the year – largely dependent on the level of interest we receive. If you might be interested in our Slow Christmas/NY offering then do get in touch!
Keeping with the Festive Season theme, here (below) is a photograph taken for Befana Day (Epiphany/12th Night); we are sure that you will remember the lovely and inspiring views from Casale di Clio – but you won’t have seen a chilly view like this (thankfully, our 2025 Festive Season opening provided many lovely sunny days, with our first very light snowfall of Winter 2025/26 arriving just 2 days after our last guest departed!):
(no image filters/enhancement used!)
A final thank you to all who contributed to our 2025 season – hoping to see some of you again some time!
Best wishes, Adrian & Tizi
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