We Have a New Home, Podere Il Cerro, and Soon a New Website!

Dear Friends, The boxes are stacking up, and everyone wants to see the new place, so our plans for this weekend (July 25th and 26th) have changed. Instead of having a third party, picnic and yard sale at La Macchina Fissa, we will be packing all day Saturday July 25th and the next day we will take our first trip together up to the new location in Lugangnano Val d'Arda, Piacenza. Nearly all of my books and belongings are packed up and ready to go!

Come Saturday July 25th any time from Noon to Nine PM to pack up and prepare boxes... or Sunday at noon for our first caravan trip!

We will meet at La Macchina Fissa on Sunday July 26th at noon and leave at 2 pm after loading up our cars and eating a light lunch. The drive takes about 2 hours (91 kilometers).

Here is when we could really use your help: August is still our big moving month (We will meet every Sunday around noon), and as of September 2026, Reading Retreats in Rural Italy will be officially located in a former horse ranch known as "Podere Il Cerro" in the hills above Castell'Arquato (Piacenza). For non-Italians or the Italians who might not know a lot about trees, "Cerro" is the Italian word for a species of oak tree native to southeastern Europe and Asia Minor, (Quercus cerris), with the common English names Austrian oak or Turkey Oak. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_cerris

My friends Gregorio Bellodi and Alessia Baraldi of Insetti Xilografi are working on a special linoleum print with oak leaves and a turkey to commemorate our 30 year anniversary and the start of our new chapter. We will have a limited number of prints by December, if not sooner! https://www.instagram.com/insetti_xilografi/?hl=en

We are so excited to share this new property and our plans with all of you! For the first year or so of living in our new location, we will regularly post before, during, and after photos and videos of the work we do, inside and outside the house. The buildings are big, the horse stalls many, and the property huge, so we've got lots of work to do!

NOMEN OMEN? One challenge: "Il Cerro" is very common in Italy (as are the trees) so in our computers and phones we are avoiding that name to not be confused with the restaurants, hotels, farms, schools, towns and other entities all containing "Cerro".

We will have a new website for you. Expect an email very soon with a link! For the moment, you can just say goodbye to this one below!

ATTENTION!! This is the last email coming to you from this address (info@lamacchinafissa.com). As we are moving our digital infrastructure, our new newsletter address will end with readingretreats.com.

Clark