Ways With Words

Does Umbria Make You Creative?

Sitting in the courtyard at Villa Pia someone said to me, “This place makes me so creative.” She was spending her mornings in the writing workshops then doing her own self directed painting in the afternoon. I am amazed at the level of creativity that happens on Ways With Words' courses. On Friday evenings in Umbria we have a Private View – a posh concept for a fun/informal event when we all gather in the painters’ barn to see a slide show of images from the week (people, places and art work) and more paintings and drawings on the walls. We drink prosecco and marvel at how much has been achieved.    Saluti artists.

After dinner we sit in the lounge while the writers read short selected pieces from their week’s writing. One week they were linked by the theme of objects. Each writer had written a description of an object chosen from around Villa Pia, and then transformed the object into a person. The next the writing accompanied slides of a figure drawing class. Such wit and invention.

Meanwhile Bepe, Patrizia, Jesse and Marinella are creative in the kitchen and we marvel at their skill and inventiveness as the huge buffet appears at lunchtime and the 4 course meal each evening. They create with their knives and wooden spoons instead of charcoal, paint and pens. I won’t try and tell them that they are food artists.

Is it the place - Umbria with its pink skies, ploughed fields and hill top villages? Is it people – helpful tutors and supportive colleagues? Is it being away from all the pressures of daily existence?

I think space has something to do with it. Large rooms, high ceilings, panoramic views; does physical space help ideas fly? Psychological space seems unquantifiable but I’m sure there’s lots of that too.

If you need space for yourself and your creativity consider a Ways With Words course in Fingals in Devon (29 April – 4 May 2012) or here at Villa Pia in Umbria  (22 Sept – 29 Sept. and/or 29 Sept - 6 Oct.).

Peace and Quiet in Umbria?

I’ve been lying – unwittingly. I suggest on Ways With Words publicity that our courses in Italy are perfect for a peaceful, quiet holiday. Not true. It can’t be denied - Villa Pia is very noisy. We’ve been coming for about 15 years so I should know that but I always forget. When I sit in a deckchair in the courtyard in these hot autumn days I enjoy the sunshine; the symmetry of the knot garden; the views through the wisteria of hills, cypress trees, olive groves – but not silence. The four Italian chefs shout all the time. Maybe they are shouting instructions to each other as they bang about in the kitchen; maybe it's gossip. My Italian is not good enough to tell but I do know it is friendly and from the kitchen come pleasant cookery noises of chopping, stirring, simmering, pans clattering. At meal times there will be a vast collection of delicious, home-cooked dishes; nothing is spoilt by the noise. The cleaners here never sweep and mop in resentful silence but instead keep a flow of loud, cheerful conversation. Often we walk across their newly mopped tiles but no problem. They shout welcoming greetings. Soon one of the course members will decide to make a cappuccino. The beans are whizzed in the electric machine and ground to powder. Next the large plumbed-in coffee machine starts to splutter and pour. Upstairs shutters bang. Footsteps ring on the tiled floors. Another opens the fridge for a beer. Bottles clink. However the writers and painters can find quiet corners to think and create. Some disappear onto leafy terraces to look and record. Others go to swim and wonder at the Umbrian landscape. They swish gently up and down the pool. Many pour a glass of wine and read. It is possible to revel in quietness but most enjoy the familiar cacophony of Villa Pia. Yet the English are reserved. They whisper to each other. Even hoots of laughter are quiet hoots. Maybe that’s what we come to Villa Pia for. Besides the wine, food, heat, pink skies, fields of sunflowers and golden mornings we want the babble of Italian voices and the crashes of shutters and doors in this large tiled villa. I’ll stop promising peace and quiet. That would be lying. A mark after the first week for noisiness would be: Italians - 10 out of 10, English – 3 out of 10. If you would enjoy the noises of Villa Pia we shall be returning next September 22 for 2 weeks of Ways With Words courses on writing, art, book groups and ideas-based discussions. All details on website or by phoning the office and talking to Bryony: 01803 867373