The Tuscan Table Retreat
No one is a writer until they start.
Do you find that you’re distracted by the challenges of life and keep putting writing off? Us too. That’s why we come to the table. Whatever your projects, level of experience or background, there’s a place set just for you. Give your inner critic a week off and come to Italy to transform your writing.
You’ll be guided by award-winning creatives, including two Sunday Times bestselling authors. Around the Tuscan Table, you’ll participate in group workshops and get one-to-one support. The villa has libraries and plenty of cosy corners as well as acres of beautiful grounds to take your imagination for a walk.
Workshops will cover core areas of storytelling such as navigating the perils of life-writing, finding your voice and unlocking creativity. The week will also include plenty of personal writing time to explore new ideas or take an existing project to the next level. Your mentors, Rhik Samadder, Sophie Heawood and Adam Shakinovsky are all writers who have collectively worked across journalism, memoir, feature film, stage and television.
The next Tuscan Table will run September 20th-September 27th 2025.
To find out more visit The Tuscan Table page. For bookings please get in touch via the Villa Pia Bookings Page.
The surroundings
Villa Pia is an award-winning family villa in Lippiano, a traditional Italian town on the border of Umbria and Tuscany. The area remains as beautiful and unspoiled as it was 500 years ago. Famed for inspiring the architecture, painting and sculpture of the Renaissance period, here civilisation and nature sit side by side.
The main house at Villa Pia is a 15th-century Italian country manor house, once the summer residence of a Florentine family. The large, rustic house plus converted barn and stables provide 17 bedrooms. Every room is unique, retaining original and traditional features and furnishings. In the main house there are communal rooms for dining, and space for you to relax, chat with a fellow workshop member or curl up with a book in the library. The house opens out onto the courtyard–perfect for time outdoors, with an aperitivo.
Book your place
Shared occupancy is priced at £1250, single occupancy with shared bathroom at £1450, and single occupancy with en suite at £1750. This includes all tuition, meals, drinks, snacks, pilates and Qi-gong .
To book please contact villapia@villapia.com
Your tutors for the week
Rhik Samadder
Rhik Samadder is an actor, writer and broadcaster. He has worked for the RSC, HBO, BBC and Channel 4. He created the popular Inspect A Gadget column in the Guardian, and several other long-running columns. He writes features for GQ, Waitrose and Observer Magazine and in 2019 he released a memoir, I Never Said I Loved You, which became a Sunday Times bestseller. The book is currently being adapted as a feature film, with Rhik writing the screenplay.
Sophie Heawood
Sophie Heawood began her writing career reviewing bands for music magazines (while working in the nightclubs where they played), which led to her becoming a pop music critic for The Guardian. She spent many years at the paper, culminating in her taking on the lead column in the Guardian Weekend magazine before leaving to freelance for all UK broadsheets.
She now interviews celebrities for Vogue, The Sunday Times and The Observer and writes a Substack column called The Sophist.
Her bestselling memoir, The Hungover Games, was published by Penguin Random House in 2020 as part of a two-book deal (she is working on the sequel) and by Little Brown in the U.S. It has been optioned for TV by Moonage Pictures and is in development with Sophie as screenwriter, telling the story of when she moved to Hollywood to party with the A-List and ended up accidentally becoming someone’s mum.
Adam Shakinovsky
Adam is a seasoned producer and writer who is passionate about story-telling across different formats.
As a writer, Adam has been commissioned to provide online content for the Sunday Times and his fiction writing has been long-listed for competitions such as The Brick Lane Short Story Prize, The Red Planet TV Prize and The Bath Children’s Novel Award. He won The People's Choice Award for his short film ACOUSTIC KITTY at the BAFTA-certified Aesthetica Short Film Festival.
Adam is Co-Director and Co-Presenter of ‘One Track Minds’, an award-winning, story-telling show. The nationwide events attract contributors from across the creative industry to share stories of songs that change their life. Following the huge success of the show, with over 300 guest stars, Adam co-edited and contributed it’s first published anthology released in 2021.
He runs regular storytelling workshops for established and aspiring writers. More recently he has works as a storytelling coach, helping people find their authentic voice.
For 7 years, Adam was Head of Productions and an Executive Producer at Agile Films before launching his own production company, Bru Productions in 2013. During this period, Adam led diverse and complex projects across the commercial, television and charity sectors.
