Why Florence is the Perfect Place for Writers
Perhaps no other city contains so many visual treasures than Florence. Painting, sculpture, architecture, gardens – a gilded gallery of a city so stunning it can cause visitors to collapse in their hotel rooms, not from exhaustion, but from inspiration overload.
In the midst of this mind-bending beauty, it is easy to forget that Florence is also the birthplace of modern literature. Dante Alighieri, in the 14th century, created the Italian language while writing what is probably the most iconic post-Homer poem in human history – The Divine Comedy.
If Helen of Troy was the “lady who launched a thousand ships,” Florence is the city that captivated legions of writers – John Milton, Charles Dickens, E.M. Forster, Mary Shelley, D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Oscar Wilde, and countless others.
And why not?
In the midst of this mind-bending beauty, it is easy to forget that Florence is also the birthplace of modern literature. Dante Alighieri, in the 14th century, created the Italian language while writing what is probably the most iconic post-Homer poem in human history – The Divine Comedy.
If Helen of Troy was the “lady who launched a thousand ships,” Florence is the city that captivated legions of writers – John Milton, Charles Dickens, E.M. Forster, Mary Shelley, D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Oscar Wilde, and countless others.
And why not?
Think of all the stories contained within the walls of the palazzos, the cathedrals and even within the canvases of its most revered paintings. Unrequited love, murder in the cathedral, bonfire of the vanities, rivalries between artistic geniuses – and those are only the ones based on true events.
If, in Florence, you let go of the strings that tether imagination to the earth, there is no limit to how high it can soar. The greatest artists and writers of all time have already proven that. The question is: where will Florence take you?
Women can find out during a unique writing retreat that, rather than keeping you in a room all day, unleashes you into the splendor of Florence, using the city as a classroom to kindle creativity.
Learn about writing from a sense of place in the Boboli gardens. Write a scene “on location” in the Brancacci chapel. Bust out of writer’s block while visiting Michelangelo’s David. It’s not just a retreat – it’s a renaissance. Writer’s Renaissance - April 6-12, 2014 Florence, Italy.
For more information on Program and Faculty, visit https://www.juliehedlund.com/writers-retreats.
If, in Florence, you let go of the strings that tether imagination to the earth, there is no limit to how high it can soar. The greatest artists and writers of all time have already proven that. The question is: where will Florence take you?
Women can find out during a unique writing retreat that, rather than keeping you in a room all day, unleashes you into the splendor of Florence, using the city as a classroom to kindle creativity.
Learn about writing from a sense of place in the Boboli gardens. Write a scene “on location” in the Brancacci chapel. Bust out of writer’s block while visiting Michelangelo’s David. It’s not just a retreat – it’s a renaissance. Writer’s Renaissance - April 6-12, 2014 Florence, Italy.
For more information on Program and Faculty, visit https://www.juliehedlund.com/writers-retreats.