Benvenuti / Welcome to La Romita's Website.

For information on our 2009 season,

click on "Programs"

We are in full swing at La Romita. Three full groups have already been here this spring...and left with some of the warmth and spirit that has kept Enza Quargnali's dream alive for forty-four years....that and a bit of work, of course.

We are happy to present a special collaboration this fall (September 7 - 21, 2009) with award winning painter Carol Vogel and teaching chef Vera Foresman on an all inclusive two-week painting and culinary adventure tour called, Landscapes and Cuisine of Umbria . Please click here for details Classes & Workshops

Also there is still room in three other painting workshops: with the long time Ball State University Fine Arts professor Marilynn Derwenskus, July 14 - 28; with University professor Lynette Watkins, July 31 - August 14; and with long time educator Charlotte Attebery, September 25 - October 9. All three are specialists in watercolor and mixed media...that means everything...and in helping you on your artistic path, regardless of your skill level. (Please click on "Programs" on the upper right of this page for details.)

 

After four full decades of offering the most complete, problem-free cross-cultural art seminars, the secret of Bella Umbria has gotten out. Each season seems more exciting and popular…and at La Romita, that’s saying something. The secret of our artistic vacations could be the fact that artists of all levels work together in a carefree environment inspiring one another while soaking in the ambience of the preceding centuries…five hundred year old paintings and frescoes decorate the walls of our studio-chapel.

…or the secret could be the fact that in Italy, food is one of the finest arts…and the Umbrian country cuisine served at La Romita is as steeped in history as the most complex renaissance painting.

…or that the exquisite local grapes: Sangiovese reds and Orvieto Classico whites, (served with our meals), work in tandem with the warmth of the Umbrian people to fill you with the spirit of Italy.

…or the Umbrian hilltowns themselves. After Assisi and Perugia, the towns you go to are off the beaten path…practically off the map…jewels of architecture and history spilling from the hilltops…written broadly across the landscape.

…or, perhaps the greatest secret of all, that in these towns you will probably be the only tourists present, that you will be appreciated for what you offer to the locals…a mirror through the arts of the lives and culture they value so highly…and that these people will greet you and welcome you and be sad to see you go…that language is no barrier. This is not an exaggeration…it happens group after group. So come to La Romita…for the painting and expert instruction regardless of your level of expertise…or come for the daily hilltown trips and the food and shopping and wine and museums. There is, quite simply, no better way to immerse yourself in the deep sweet glow of Italy…and learn a secret to keep for the rest of your life.