Stay at a "Reading Retreat" in Rural Italy

By Rebecca Falkoff

I first learned about Castello di Galeazza , in the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna, when I worked as a tour group leader at the Colosseum in Rome. As I watched frenzied tourists grapple with their overcrowded itineraries it seemed clear that by the time they returned home they would be ready for another vacation. Castello di Galeazza sounded like the perfect contrast to this mad kind of sightseeing.

The palazzo, built by the Montefano family in the late 1600s, is the seat of a cultural association called “Reading Retreats in Rural Italy.” In 1996, Clark Lawrence, a Maine native, made it into a peaceful sanctuary where guests can escape the busy pace of their lives—or their vacations. With large gardens and a library of more than 2,000 volumes, the villa is an idyllic setting for relaxation and reading. It also hosts art exhibits and weekly concerts.

When I arrived in late April the weather was warm and the villa was hosting an exhibit of works by the Turkish artist Gürhan Yücel. The opening was followed by a concert by the Florentine pianist Sergio de Simone and the Sicilian flautist Francesco Loi, followed by a banquet.

Lawrence greeted me and showed me around. The library and concert hall, gallery, and bedrooms are all decorated with 17th-century frescoes, original art, antique furniture, and fresh flowers. With what I soon realized was characteristic humility, Lawrence bemoaned the sloppy retouches as I marveled at the frescoes.

Guests often offer a hand. Some end up spending so much time in the garden that Lawrence calls their reading retreats “weeding retreats.” The intimacy of the place, which is not found in ordinary hotels, is reflected in the remarkably low price. The rate includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There is no restaurant, just a well-stocked kitchen which everyone is welcome to use—though guests usually cook and eat together.

The event felt like a neighborhood gathering, the kind of Italian evening that springs from a sense of community and a love for una bella serata.

Reading in the garden is probably much more typical of life at the villa than co-hosting a reception. But by setting out to retreat into a text, visitors also enter into a community and experience Italian culture as it is lived away from the Colosseum and the Uffizi Galleries. Most guests travel before coming to the villa and then settle down at Castello di Galeazza for a few days of reading and relaxing. If possible, arrange to be there on a Saturday night so that you can attend a concert.

For More Info

Visit the Castello di Galeazza web site at www.galeazza.com/galeazzaonline/home.php?language=en for more information. Internships are available for college students.

Information for musicians and artists who would like to perform or exhibit at the villa is also available online. Castello di Galeazza is about a half-hour drive from Bologna. Directions to the villa by car are also available at the web site.

REBECCA FALKOFF is a freelance writer and English teacher currently living in Paris.