Tuscany Retreat 2022
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September 15th - 19th 2022
Ciao Bella!
We are excited to announce that for our Summer retreat we are travelling to the quaint village of Pomaia situated in one of Italy’s most popular destinations,Tuscany.
Our home for the retreat is a traditional Italian villa surrounded by beautiful Tuscan landscape. The property is located 14km from the coast where we can explore the famous beaches. There’s lots of indoor and outdoor spaces for us to dance and relax in. There are also tennis courts and our own private pool for us all to take a dip!
We have a large villa located at 1 km from the village of Pomaia, a medieval hamlet on the Etruscan Coast hills. Pomaia is a typical Tuscan village and there are amazing sights to be seen from Santa Luce Lake and one of the largest Tibetan monasteries in Europe. The nearest airport is Pisa which is 35km away.
How it works
Sit back, relax and let the good times roll. Your hosts Holly and Romayne have thought of every detail to make this retreat the best one yet!
You will arrive on Thursday, set your bags down and have time to soak up the sun. That evening we plan to relax by the pool with a welcome drink provided by yours truly and enjoy a home cooked dinner at the house.
When we are not dancing we will take a day trip to explore the best of the surrounding areas of Pomaia and the nearest beach 14km away, Castiglioncello with its red cliffs plunging into the sea, sheltered coves, pools of crystal-clear water, and a beautiful pinewood forest it is the perfect place for snorkelling and relaxing.
We will also take time to sample Tuscan cuisine and we will make dinner and lunch reservations at the best local restaurants.
Anyone who has been away with us before can tell you this is set to be a really enjoyable retreat. This weekend is guaranteed to improve your swing dancing in a fun and relaxed environment and is aimed at improvers/intermediate dancers.
Classes
Holly France and Romayne Etwaroo will be putting you through your paces, the classes will be challenging, fun, and you will be given lots of one to one attention along the way. We require dancer’s to at least be at improver level. Variations will be given depending on ability and personal requirements. A class description will be added before the retreat. Depending on how things transpire with Covid 19 these could be solo or partner classes, those attending with their partner will be able to partner
Accommodation
Rooms can be single occupancy or shared, shared rooms will be of the same sex, talk to us if you identify as non-binary, no problem.
We ask couples and those wanting single occupancy to let us know asap to avoid disappointment as they can go quite quickly.
Food
We pride ourselves on our delicious vegetarian home cooked meals, we will take full advantage of the abundance of fresh local ingredients the area has to offer. Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements.
Cost = £485 shared room, £585 single occupancy.
What's included
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5 x Dance classes
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4 nights accomodation
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Breakfast each day
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Lunch x2
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Welcome drinks
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Evening meal on Thursday
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Accommodation
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All your dinner/lunch reservations planned
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Pilates class Friday to Sunday mornings
Please note there will be a cost for travel to and from the restaurants, but this will be kept to a minimum.
Getting there
You will be flying to Pisa Airport. The airport is approximately 35km away from the property.
There are direct flights from a couple of low cost airlines such as Ryan Air and Easyjet. Please note, the flight prices may change due to the month purchased. We encourage everyone to book their flights as soon as possible for the cheapest fare.
Please take note of the check in and out times of the house before organising your flights.
Check in is after 5.00pm, Check out is 10am.
A taxi from Pisa airport is between £70/£90 and should take less than an hour. We collective will try to organise it so people can share rides from the airport. Currently there is a Ryan Air flight from Stansted that arrives in Pisa at 15.05 pm. This would be a great flight to catch.
There will also be a WhatsApp so people can discuss possible ride shares from the airport if preferred. This has worked well in previous years.
Address
Via di Poggiberna, Fornaci, Toscana 56040, Italy
You can reserve your space by paying a deposit to Holly of £100. Please note that this deposit is not refundable unless there are extenuating circumstances that can be evidenced.
Full payment to be made by July 1st 2022
You can email us on:
sugarpushvintagedance@gmail.com please feel free to get in touch with any queries you have.
Donations: We have been spending the last year looking at better ways to respect this jazz dance and it's history and culture, we strive to continue to learn and improve. The Black Lindy Hoppers fund does great work building, nurturing and strengthening black dancers within the swing scene. Collective Voices for change have also been leading sessions on how to improve our whitewashed swing dance scene. We will be making a donation of the profits from this trip to both of them, See what they do here and why not give them a follow on social media too while you're at it
@blacklindyhf
https://blacklindyhoppersfund.org
@collectivevoicesforchange
https://www.collectivevoicesforchange.org
COVID UPDATE
There will be mandatory testing for everyone attending with many other precautions put in place, all attendees will have to agree to the terms, a full risk assessment is in process. An email with the full information will be sent to each individual.
During the retreat everyone will be required to take a lateral flow test each morning to ensure we are all cover free.
We wanted to reassure you all that we will keep a close eye on updates. If we go back into lock down or have other Covid-19 related issues that restrict travel a full refund will be given.
Although we have a plan for the trip we will adapt accordingly, we have a massive property with loads of space so fun will be had no matter what.