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The Wild Writing
Women are traveling together to Tuscany to celebrate the release of
our book, Wild Writing
Women: Stories of World Travel. It will be the first time all
twelve of us have ever been together in the same place at the same time.
With the addition of Maureen Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely Planet Guidebooks
(our gracious hostess), we are thirteen, the traditional number required
for a coven, we hear. In keeping with the nature of travel writers,
most of us are traveling around Italy and beyond before and after our
visit. (Aren't we predictable?) Here's what some of us will be doing...
rather, what we plan to be doing, which is usually a completely
different thing.
Check
the DISPATCHES
index for all the stories, photos and video that begin on September
17, 2001. For stories from the villa see dispatches starting on September
22.
 Lisa
Alpine
Lisa Alpine will be flying into Florence to join the Wild Writing Women
gang at The Villa. She has her olive green silk bikini packed, ready
for poolside, and her laptop so she may capture in woven words the magical
events and minute but mystical details of this sojourn under the Tuscan
sun. Along with those important accouterments, she is also traveling
with a suitcase of CDs so that she can spin tunes in the warm evenings.
While the wild women sip bubbly Proseco they shall dance under the Tuscan
moon, for Lisa is also a dejay and dance teacher who after the fantasy
time at The Villa, will head out to Milan in a midget rental car, pick
up Delisa Heiman, one of her favorite dance students and a traveling
companion par excellence, and head to Bologna where Lisa is being sponsored
to teach a dance workshop. See the workshop
descriptions of this and other splendid trips she leads to Egypt,
Hawaii, Mexico and France. After teaching dance in a language she does
not speak, Lisa is going to enjoy the cultured atmosphere at Villa
Montefano, a reading retreat in rural Italy. Perchance, they shall
have her read stories from the Wild Writing Women: Stories of World
Travel to their guests. Then it is off to few romantic, wondering
days in Venice to experiment with Sculptural Movement in public places.
She may take a detour on departing Venice to stop at Abano Terme near
Padova, one of the "best spas in Europe" to take the waters. Quiet,
rejuvenation will be found at Damanhur
a spiritual, art retreat in northern foothills near Torino where she
will spend the last three days in meditation before flying home.
 Jacqueline
Harmon Butler
My adventure begins in Venice with Maureen and a few of the Wild Writing
Women. Weâll explore the back calli (streets) and rii (waterways)·get
up before daylight to photograph the sunrise·drink Fragolino, Buccintoro
and Sgroppino with the locals·indulge in Venetian foods like: seppie
con polenta, canocce, and moleche at Ristorante Do Forni·ride a vaporetto
from one end of the Grand Canal to the other at sunset·flirt with the
gondolieri·dance in the Piazza San Marco at midnight. Weâll take the
noon train to Florence, then head up to Barberino di Mugello and the
Villa dei Castello for our weeklong retreat. I plan to laze by the pool·sleep
in the sun·shop in the local markets·prepare fabulous food·sit under
the stars far into the night talking, planing, dreaming with my friends·zoom
around the countryside in the rental car·take the group to meet the
infamous Claudio at his restaurant, Botticelli, in Lucca·poke around
the wine growing region of Rufina. Iâll spend the following week in
Florence with assorted WWW. On Sunday weâll head into the rolling hills
of Chianti for lunch at Vignale in Radda, then explore the vineyards
nearby. Weâll wander the streets of Florence·eat lots of gelato·visit
the Michelangeloâs at the Cappelle Medicee·have dinner at Il Latini·shop
the street market at San Lorenzo to find the perfect leather jacket,
maybe a handbag too.
 Lauren
Cuthbert
We're pleased to be adventuring for this week in Tuscany with Wild Writing
Women Lauren, who three years ago took on the challenging adventure
of motherhood.
 Lynn
Ferrin
Lynn has decided not to travel.
 Carla
King
For this trip to celebrate the release of Wild Writing Women: Stories
of World Travel I couldn't resist the opportunity to create yet
another motorcycle
misadventure -- a month-long exploration of Italy's backroads on
a Moto
Guzzi. I'll begin in Milan and pick up the motorcycle at Bruno Scola's
(famous Italian mechanic and racer) dealership, then make my way through
Torino to Damanhur,
an intentional spiritual community where I'll spend a few days exploring
and meditating in their incredible underground temples. A five hour
ride south takes me to join my fellow wild writing women at a villa
in Tuscany, home base for a week. During this week Iâm looking forward
to day tripping in the area... might I lure a few other wild writing
women along with me on the Guzzi? Then I'll be traveling alone again,
journeying from mainland to island, starting with Elba, perhaps, and
meandering over the Mediterranean to Sardinia and then Sicily where
the volcano has been acting a bit like its famous neighbor at Pompei.
After Sicily I'll land at Italy's boot to make my way back north through
small villages, on the lookout for culinary treats (it's truffle season,
I hear) all the way back to Milan and to end my trip in the beautiful,
Northern Italian village where Moto Guzzi's are made. Alis Agostini,
who runs the dealership there will take me to meet Stephani at the factory
-- two Italian women in motorcycling in one trip! Join me. Iâll be sending
dispatches twice weekly back to the Italian
Lessons Web site.
 Jennifer
Leo
Jennifer returned home from a round-the-world adventure just a few weeks
ago... yet we successfully lured her back on a plane!
 Danielle
Machotka
I land in Florence with a couple of the other wild women on the 22nd
and weâll zoom to the villa in my rental car. Yes, zoom, because I donât
know any other speed in Italy. A week of who-knows-what follows, and
if Iâm still standing (and driving), Iâll cross the hills into Umbria
to visit my father, who now lives in a bucolic setting three kilometers
outside a two-cafŽ town. Hereâs the interesting part: my new boyfriend,
Jim, is joining me there to meet my father and stepmother, and we are
heading off to Vernazza together with two friends from Seattle, Annie
and Rod. There weâll work with the locals, carrying on a tradition my
sister and I started two years ago÷rebuilding dry-laid stone walls,
clearing terraces, cleaning trails, harvesting grapes. In the afternoons
and evenings weâll hike, hang out with our local friends Alessandro,
Giorgio, Daniele, and anyone who happens by. After five days of that,
Annie, Rod and I are off to southern France and Annieâs stomping grounds.
Jim heads off to visit his relatives near Milan, and we should know
by then if we are compatible travelers. Meeting the parents and traveling
together at the same time? A definite test of this relationship.
 Linda
Watanabe McFerrin
ãLawrence and
I knew better, of course. We had seen this happen before. We knew that
the meal most longed-for is the meal not yet eaten.ä ö Linda Watanabe
McFerrin, On Pleasures Oral
The last time I was in Tuscany I found love in Florence (Florence, the
Face of Love forthcoming in Travelersâ Tales Tuscany, Fall 2001),
mystery and sensuality in Venice (Enchanted Piazza, San Francisco
Examiner Magazine; On Pleasures Oral, Wild Writing Women: Stories
of World Travel) and magic in the eighth century castle where I
stayed with dear friends on the Italian coast. This trip I continue
my quest for the exquisite, the exotic and the erotic as I revisit the
sites of past escapades and explore new ones. This time, fired by the
excitement that has surrounded the launch of my latest workshop, From
the Realm of the Senses: Understanding and Writing Erotica (next
workshop November 17, 2001 at Book Passage), Iâll be probing ever deeper
into the pleasures of la dolce vita. Where will this take me? Back to
Venice? Back to Florence? Or, all over the sun-drenched Tuscan countryside
in the company of other wild women?
For information about Lindaâs workshops and writings, go to www.lwmcferrin.com.
 Pamela
Michael
Pamela is combining work and pleasure on this trip. Does a travel writer
ever really do otherwise? She hopes to spend Week One in Tuscany venturing
out from the villa to explore the forests and hills of the Mugello.
"I'm bringing my collapsible walking stick," she says, "and I mean to
poke it's sure-footed titanium tip into miles of Tuscan trails." Week
Two will take Pam to another villa--this one in the village of Rubiana
(near Torino). Her friend Carolyn from Berkeley just bought the place
as a vacation retreat. Carlo and Paoletta, Italian friends whom Pam
met in Paris years ago, live nearby. Carolyn's coming over for the week,
and Pam expects she'll spend lots of time catching up with Carlo and
Paoletta and helping Carolyn spend money on antiques and other fun stuff
for the house. For the last two weeks of the trip, Pam will fly from
Milan to Tehran (thank you Alitalia!) at the invitation of President
Khatemi to open an exhibit of children's art and poetry from the annual
contest conducted by the organization she co-founded (and still directs)
with former US Poet Laureate Robert Hass, River
of Words. While in Iran she's going to go river rafting in the north
and will also visit as many ancient cities as she can. She plans to
come home with a suitcase full of saffron.
 Cathleen
Miller
I'll be flying into Roma alone, and I'm eagerly awaiting my first
glimpse of the Eternal City. Only today I received a note from my hotel
saying: "Dear Cathy Miller, it will be for us a unique pleasure accommodating
you and your wife on your Roman holiday." Yes, that certainly will be
a unique pleasure... for me anyway! While in Rome I will also be on
the trail of material for my next project, a biography of Dr. Nafis
Sadik, former executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, and a
lifelong advocate of women's reproductive rights. At the Cairo Conference
in 1994, she had a well-documented showdown with the Vatican over their
refusal to endorse all but "natural methods" of birth control. I hope
to interview some of the parties knowledgeable about this debate, so
I can present an accurate account in the book. After I leave Rome I've
given myself a few days with nothing planned, and will see where destiny
leads me. The Amalfi Coast? Cinque Terre? Le Carcere? Then it's on to
Venice where I'll be meeting some of my WWW compatriots. Christi and
I will be rooming together at the Hotel Bonvecchiati, just off the Piazza
San Marco, and plan to spend many happy hours at their outdoor cafe.
After a few days in Venice, I'll meet all twelve of the WWW for a historic
reunion at a villa in Tuscany. Maureen Wheeler from Lonely Planet will
be joining us. Since the structure was built in the ninth century, it
may have seen the likes of us before÷in fact in a thousand years of
accommodating, this villa has probably seen it all. Even thirteen wild
women traveling sans wives.
 Christi
Phillips
Christi will join Jacqueline, Linda, Cathy, Alison and Maureen in Venezia
before joining us at the villa.
 Alison
Wright
Alison's week at the villa will be followed by some time in Istanbul.
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