Tuscany 2023
Tuscany Swing Dance Retreat 2023
September 14th - 18th 2023
Ciao Ballerini!!
We are delighted to announce we are going to Ronta in Tuscany, just half an hour from Florence. Italy has always been one of our favorite destinations with its rich history, delicious food and beautiful scenery whats not to love. This will be our 14th retreat, we are so glad to be back in beautiful Tuscany.
Our home for the retreat is a traditional villa which dates back to the 1700’s and is surrounded by green Tuscan countryside at the foot of the Apennines.
As always there’s lots of indoor and outdoor spaces for us to dance and relax in and our own private pool for us all to take a dip! We will have the whole places to ourselves including stunning grounds for us to enjoy.
From the charming town of Ronta it’s a short train ride to the Tuscan capital of Florence, where we will take a day trip to explore the city and taste the best Tuscan cuisine.
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 visit the city of Florence and experience it's history, art, architecture and local delicacies. There will be lots of free time to explore the cultural delights the city has to offer. We will make reservations for lunch and dinner at beautiful local restaurants so you can enjoy your time sightseeing. We will also visit the tranquil town of Ronta for dinner one evening to sample the local delicacies.
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. As always there will be a focus on musicality, originality, rythym and improvisation. 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. Knowledge of swing outs is required.
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. Holly will be your chef for the retreat, she worked as a chef for many years including working for the well known vegetarian restaurant Mildreds.
Cost = £495 shared room, £595 single occupancy.
What's included
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5 x Dance classes
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4 nights accommodation
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Breakfast or brunch each day
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Lunch x2
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Welcome drinks
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Evening meal on Thursday and Sunday
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All your dinner/lunch reservations planned
Please note there will be a cost for travel to and from Florence but this will be kept to a minimum.
Getting there
You can fly direct to Florence Airport which is approximately 40km away from the property.
There are direct flights from 2 airlines. 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 Florence airport is between £40/£55 and should take less than 45 minutes. You can also travel by train which will cost between £2-£6 and should take 55mins. The station is 1.6km from the property.
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.
Private lessons will be available at a discounted rate of £45 ph, spaces will be limited so please book these in advance.
Address
Villa Dei Marchesi,
Via Filippo, 1, Ronta, Toscana, 50032, 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 June 1st 2023
You can email us on:
franceandetwaroo@gmail.com please feel free to get in touch with any queries you have.
Donations: We are always 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
