At The Petruso Resort where we stay with the guests from Art Toscana Art Courses in Italy, we all have a little apartment with a tropical/Sicilian garden. The staff at The Petruso Resort are so helpful, friendly and accommodating that our Art Toscana Painting Holidays in Italy guests feel completely relaxed and at home.
This picture is the restaurant at the Petruso Resort in Sicily where, in October, our guests from Art Toscana Painting holidays in Italy were just about to have their last meal before returning home. What a wonderful time we had. The picture was taken from the studio in the garden at the end of the
This aerial view of Erice was taken from the cable car. It’s a long way up; 750 metres. I was travelling with one of our American guests from Art Toscana Painting Holidays in Italy. Your legs go wobbly and your stomach turns over looking down on the coast line of Trapani on the west coast
Sicily is covered in prickly pear trees. You see them on the hills, in gardens, on shrub land, just about everywhere! They look very pretty especially when the fruits are ripe and red. In Tuscany they are considered a delicacy and people give them to each other as presents! They were beautifully prepared for breakfast
Every year the proprietors of The Petruso Resort improve and renovate the hotel and grounds keeping it looking perfectly maintained even at the end of the season when we are there with our Art Toscana Holiday in Italy guests. Last year they built a health spar which is an aromatic one where Chris and I
What a strange Spring! It’s February. The daffodils are in bloom but the snowdrops are lingering-on in sweet splendour, while the hellebores, which decorate the garden in January, have only just decided to wake up. At Art Toscana, painting holidays in Italy, set in the unique environment of the Garfagnana, there are always strange surprises.
When we go to Florence at Christmas time it seems like a different town. We are not there to run our art vacations in Italy, that’s in April, when the hills are covered in apple blossom and the spring sun glows yellow across the river Arno. We go there every December to celebrate our wedding
Our dog Teddy had his first wash and brush up. Well, it took three hours for Manuela to comb through every part of him, shower, shampoo and condition him, and then dry him with the hair dryer before a final comb through. Teddy can look forward to another grooming in May before our guests at
I often stand on the little bridge at the end of our lane mesmerised by the Corsonna river. In summer, it is nothing more than a rivulet, where the sunlight peeping between the branches of the overhanging trees, sends silver darts into the water dancing among the rocks. Our guests at Art Toscana, painting holidays
This is a picture of the salt marshes at Trapani (Le Saline di Trapani) in Sicily where our Art Toscana painting in Italy guests develop their oil paintings. It is truly an inspirational place especially for artists. The salt pans have a pink hew due to the prawns that live there. This attracts flocks of