Autumn CREATIVE RETREAT
4 October – 11 October 2025
Fully booked
Join Bland Badger hosts - Charlotte Bland and Ros Badger - and their very special guests, Caroline Kent, founder of Scribble and Daub, Amy Fielding of JamJar Edit, collage artist Louisa Dunn, Nadine Gibbon of Spinney Cottage Flowers and author Christobel Kent, together in Villa Pia’s beautiful setting for an autumnal creative retreat to reconnect you with your inner creativity.
THE Programme
The art of flower pressing with Amy Fielding from JamJar Edit.
Illustrated stationery with Caroline Kent from Scribble and Daub.
Collage making with Louisa Dunn.
A photography walk with Charlotte Bland.
Silver clay jewellery making with Ros Badger.
Floral headdresses with Nadine Gibbon.
A day trip to Arezzo, to the oldest antiques market in Italy, Fiera Antiquaria di Arezzo.
A confirmed programme for the week is provided to booked guests before arrival.
HIGHLIGHTS
We return to the fantastic Arezzo antiques market – Fiera Antiquario di Arezzo. This starts the week off with a day hunting for treasures at the oldest antiques market in Italy, where you can pick up unique finds to incorporate in the creative workshops as the week unfolds.
Create a piece of individual stationery inspired by Villa Pia’s surroundings with artist Caroline Kent from Scribble & Daub, whose work was recently described by British Vogue as “part stationery part fine art”.
Learn the art of flower pressing with Amy Fielding, director of renowned floral design studio JamJar Flowers and director and co-founder of sister studio JamJar Edit. Forage for local autumn flowers to press and then take home your own unique artwork.
Nadine Gibbon from Spinney Cottage Flowers is teaching a foraged foliage headdress-making class. Nadine’s fabulous fun workshop is always a highlight of the week!
Learn about textile designer and collage artist Louisa Dunn’s inspiration and process, and create your own unique piece of collage art in her colourful workshop.
Create a silver charm with Ros in her silver clay jewellery workshop where you will learn to shape and fire your own piece of alchemic magic!
Go on a photography walk with Charlotte and learn her tips for developing your own photographic style inspired by the beauty of the Italian landscape and the wonderful natural light. Explore the vibrant spring landscape with your camera - any sort of which will do, from phone to film and everything in between.
Christobel Kent, author of many books set in Florence, is visiting us at Villa Pia to share her bespoke Bland Badger Florence itineraries if you decide to visit ‘the cradle of the Renaissance’ on our free day. We don’t know anyone who knows Florence better, or indeed loves it more, than Christobel and she has compiled the most wonderful round up of this special city for our Bland Badger guests with three personalised Florentine itineraries reflecting her knowledge of the city and passion for art, craft, food and fashion.
The Bland Badger Brocante, the much-anticipated curated flea market we host in the Villa Pia courtyard, is back with local sellers of antique linen and vintage clothing, plus beautiful Ivo Angel splatter ceramics made in nearby Cortona and a host of surprises.
Optional Extras
Cooking classes with the Villa Pia chefs - highly recommended, these popular classes are bookable on arrival and fill up quickly
Massage and treatments with Villa Pia’s beauty therapist
Local visits including Piero della Francesca’s most famous work “The Madonna del Parto” and other local museums
PRICES
An £800 per person deposit secures your Autumn Retreat place
We only have 1 triple room available for the Autumn Retreat, this is in the main house
THE MAIN HOUSE
£1700 per person Triple room, ensuite bathroom (to be booked as a group of three friends) ~ sold out
£2195 per person Twin room, ensuite bathroom (to be booked as a group of two friends) ~ sold out
£2250 per person Single room, shared bathroom with one other room ~ sold out
£2425 per person Single room, ensuite bathroom ~ sold out
THE ANNEXE
£2095 per person Twin room, ensuite bathroom (to be booked as a group of two friends) ~ sold out
£2150 per person Single room, shared bathroom with one other room ~ sold out
£2325 per person Single room, ensuite bathroom ~ sold out
The deposit of £800 is due when booking
The balance payment is due by 31 July 2025. The full payment is made up of a non-refundable £800 deposit and the remaining balance. Rooms are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Please read the Bland Badger Terms & Conditions carefully before booking.
MEET THE TUTORS
Amy Fielding
Amy is director of renowned floral design studio JamJar Flowers, and co-founder of sister studio JamJar Edit. After graduating with a degree in Fine Art, Amy worked for visionary fashion photographer Nick Knight before finding her calling at JamJar, a bespoke florist situated in a charming Dickensian yard in South London.
A chance commission from Mulberry to press flowers for their SS15 fashion show opened up a whole new world of botanical exploration which inspired Amy and fellow co-founder Melissa Richardson to launch their flower pressing studio and e-commerce shop, JamJar Edit.
JamJar Edit specialise in creating contemporary pressed flower artworks for private commissions, exhibitions and their ready-to-buy collection; they have recorded wild flower meadows, documented entire gardens and reinterpreted historical paintings and stained glass with pressed flowers to create bespoke artworks and large scale installations.
Their work has been featured in Times Luxx, Elle Decoration, House and Garden, Rakes Progress and many other publications and The Modern Flower Press, written by Amy and Melissa, was published by William Collins in 2022.
Caroline Kent
Previously a curator of contemporary art, Caroline founded Scribble & Daub in 2012 and has since created illustrations for leading international luxury fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands including Dior, Mr & Mrs Smith and Vogue.
She has collaborated on stationery collections with two of Britain’s most famous and beautiful gardens, Charleston House & Great Dixter, and her own garden and wild flower meadow at her East Sussex cottage and studio has been featured in the pages of the New York Times' T Magazine.
Caroline will be sharing her sophisticated eye for design and showing the Bland Badger guests how to create a piece of individual stationery inspired by the natural environment surrounding Villa Pia.
Louisa Dunn
Louisa Dunn is a textile designer and mixed-media artist living & creating in Charleston South Carolina, USA. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, she has a BFA in Fibers with a background in textiles.
She designs with a keen sensitivity to colour and shape interactions using sewing, collage and drawing. Recently profiled in Architectural Digest and Blumenhaus magazine, clients include Loeffler Randall, Basic Projects, Bar Rollins, HART Jewellery, Weezie and and has recently joined Workstead’s team in Charleston.
Louisa began her Bland Badger journey as a guest and impressed us so much we are bringing her back for her third year as a tutor.
Nadine Gibbon
Nadine is a floral designer based in St Albans, Hertfordshire, specialising in bespoke arrangements for weddings and events. With a lifelong passion for flowers, her work is known for its luxurious, unique designs.
Fuelled by her passion for the craft, Nadine teaches workshops, including Christmas wreath making, from her enchanting woodland studio at her family home, Spinney Cottage. For the past few years, she has also taught sold-out winter workshops at Hotel Endsleigh, in Devon.
Nadine’s Bland Badger headdress making class, featuring foliage collected on the morning of the workshop, is always a highlight of our week. A natural-born teacher, her expertise is unparalleled. What truly sets her apart, however, is her infectious humour and her sense of fun, making for an absolutely brilliant workshop every time!
Christobel Kent
Christobel was born in London in 1962 and educated at Cambridge University. Several years of her childhood were spent living on a Thames sailing barge in Maldon, Essex, with her father, stepmother, three siblings, and four step-siblings.
She has published seventeen novels, starting with four standalone thrillers set in Italy, followed by her six novels in the Sandro Cellini Florentine detective series. She has since written seven psychological thrillers, including the Sunday Times bestseller, The Loving Husband.
Christobel is always an inspiration to our guests, not just with her literary style, but also with her unique personal flair. Having split her time between Florence and the UK for twenty years, Christobel’s engaging talks offer exclusive insights into Florence, and provide a perspective that only a true insider can share.
Christobel’s Instagram posts are compulsive viewing for those interested in vintage style, especially as seen in fashion and film.
What’s Included
Room prices include all workshops and materials, activities and all food and drink (except lunch on the Arezzo excursion day and lunch and dinner on our free day which is the cooks’ day off). The meals (including 24 hour access to snacks, fruit, aperitivos, wine, beer and soft drinks) at the villa are provided for and prepared expertly by the local cooks.
You also have full use of Villa Pia’s facilities, which include a swimming pool and a tennis court.
Arezzo EXCURSION Day
Bland Badger provides return coach travel from Villa Pia to Arezzo where you are free to explore Italy’s oldest antiques market for the day.
What’s Not Included
Air fares and the cost of transfers to and from the villa
Travel insurance
Optional extra activities
Lunch and dinner on the excursion day
ARRIVING AT THE VILLA
Flights to Perugia, Florence and Pisa are well-located for Lippiano.
If flying to Florence, you can take the train to Arezzo, and then a taxi or hire car from there to Villa Pia. Direct trains run between Florence and Arezzo. If enough people arrive on the Perugia flight, Villa Pia can arrange a group transfer.
Hiring a car at the airport or in Arezzo is a great way to get to Villa Pia and gives you freedom to explore the area. Lippiano is a beautiful hamlet but most local attractions, shops and restaurants are a short drive away.
Arezzo train station is approximately 30 minutes from Villa Pia and taxis are available between Arezzo and the villa at a cost of around €70.
Arrival time at Villa Pia is from 3pm on Saturday. On your first night we have welcome drinks before dinner, which is at 8pm. Checkout time is by 10am on Saturday.
Bland Badger bears no responsibility for flight cancellations or schedule changes.
TRAVEL INSURANCE
It is a condition of accepting your booking that you have personal travel insurance arranged in advance, including cancellation insurance for Covid and other medical reasons, redundancy, jury service etc. for all members of your party. Please note that the use of Villa Pia, its facilities, grounds and swimming pool are entirely at the user’s risk. Bland Badger and Villa Pia SRL, its directors, staff and agents are not liable for any loss, injury or claim of any kind arising out of, or in connection with, staying at, or traveling to and from Villa Pia for you or any member of your party.