I’m sitting in Tuscany as I write this, which feels like the right place to tell you about il dolce far niente — the sweetness of doing nothing.
Not the guilt of doing nothing.
Not the restlessness of doing nothing.
The actual sweetness of it.
Most people come to Italy intending to find that.
They book the trip, they imagine the slow mornings, the unhurried afternoons, the long lunches that drift into evening.
They picture themselves finally exhaling.
And then they build an itinerary that makes it structurally impossible.
Fourteen cities. Eleven trains. Every museum. Every iconic view. Every restaurant from the list.
I understand why.
When you’ve waited years for a trip like this, it feels like a waste to leave anything out.
But here’s what I’ve learned after 35 years of watching people arrive in Italy exhausted and leave the same way: il dolce far niente is not something you find.
It’s something you have to design in on purpose.
It has to be built into the structure of your days, or it won’t happen.
My Italian colleagues have done exactly that with a small-group retreat this October in the Val d’Orcia — in the heart of Tuscany — and when I saw the itinerary, I couldn’t wait to share it with you.
Six days.
A 17th-century farmhouse perched above Pienza, with only seven rooms and views across the UNESCO valley.
And a schedule built around doing less, more deeply.
What’s in those six days:
- An e-bike ride through cypress-lined countryside to one of Montalcino’s few biodynamic wineries, where the winemaker leads your tasting.
- A morning in a castle mill learning to make pasta from flour that was stone-ground that same day, from ancient grains grown on the property.
- An afternoon at a hilltop cheese dairy just outside Pienza, building a picnic from their award-winning pecorino.
- A day at a thermal spa fed by mineral springs that have been in use since medieval times.
- And Pienza itself, small enough to walk end-to-end in fifteen minutes, beautiful enough to stay in all afternoon.
Between those experiences: free mornings. Unscheduled time. The pool. The wine cellar. Dinner at the farmhouse.
It is, on purpose, not a lot. That’s the point.
This is the kind of trip that works best for someone who already knows what they want from Italy, and is ready to stop researching and simply go.
If that sounds like you, reply to this email and I’ll send you the full details or we can set up a time to chat.
I’m happy to answer questions and help you decide if it’s the right fit.
“IL DOLCE FAR NIENTE” IN THE VAL D’ORCIA
This is an intimate small-group experience — the kind where you’ll know everyone by the second evening. There are three rooms remaining, and the trip is October 25 -30.
You could even add a few days before or after the retreat. Hit reply and we can talk through the options.
Alla prossima (until next time),