What is “Pronto Marcella” all about?

Since 2004, I have been lucky to spend extended time in Tuscany. The people that have become my friends accept me and I’m treated like part of the family.  Picking olives, cooking, hiking, and making art together are the activities that have led to the kinds of conversations that cement friendships.

When I return to Canada or California, I am somehow transformed by these experiences and long to share my Tuscan life with my North American friends.

My dream is finally coming true with the creation of Pronto Marcella– (Ready Marcella)

This fall I will bring six women to live in a farmhouse for fourteen nights. We will pick olives, experience and create art and learn about the history of the Jewish people in Tuscany. We will meet some of my Italian friends and when they teach us how to make pasta, we will show them how to bake challah.

this is Il Colle, where  we will be staying, about 30 minutes from Florence

Cristina will take us into her gardens to pick herbs and we will make Tuscan salts and cosmetics. Anna and Luca will show us some of the secret places of Florence and Siena.

Herbs drying in the sun

Malo will teach us how weave baskets from the reeds she finds in the woods and grows on her farm.

I hope to introduce these Canadian women to my friend Susan, who at 90, still paints every day and has many stories to share about her years in Florence.

But the real magic happens when we all sit down at the dinner table to eat a meal we have prepared together. Though we all come from different backgrounds, here around the table, we create a special kind of magic and the sharing, laughter and even sometimes the tears, always rings true.

We travel for different reasons- some out of restlessness, some travel to see new things.

I travel to make new connections and then make them stronger.

In the spring of 2015, I will bring another group to Tuscany to experience Primavera. Watch for details here or send me your contact information. I will tell you more about this opportunity when I create the experience!

along a country road in the spring