Our Story
Reading Retreats in Rural Italy is the brainchild of Clark Anthony Lawrence. After an internship at the Wadsworth Atheneum, he graduated from College of the Atlantic and traveled extensively around the Mediterranean. While living in Greece, he decided he didn't want to go home... so he invented a way of living in Europe. What is wonderful about his project is that his retreat also provides a home away from home for bibliophiles, artists, musicians, writers, and all kinds of people from around the world.
The Founder
Clark Anthony Lawrence
Clark Anthony Lawrence is the visionary behind Reading Retreats in Rural Italy. Combining his passion for literature, art, all things Greek, and Italian history, he established the association to create a haven for culturally curious travelers and locals alike.
Over three decades, Clark has restored and re-animated the historic properties that he has lived in, involving everyone he can in the process. Together, they have cultivated magnificent gardens, created an impressive library, organized all kinds of cultural events, and thrown some amazing parties! His warm hospitality, optimism, joie de vivre, and eccentricities have drawn literally thousands of people into his orbit, and to be perfectly honest, have frightened a few away!
Arriving in Italy
It all began in December of 1995 when Clark took a one-way flight from New York to Rome and schlepped two large suitcases on a train up to Bologna where his friend Marianna had found him a part-time job in a pizzeria. He had no visa and only $300 in his wallet, and as he often likes to joke, he usually has even less now! But just look at where he has lived!
Palazzo Montefano
Vedrana di Budrio, Bologna
The first home of Reading Retreats. A frescoed 17th century villa in the Italian countryside surrounded by rows of Lombardy poplars that divided the garden from fields of wheat, corn, potatoes, and onions.
Discover more →The Castle of Galeazza Pepoli
Crevalcore, Bologna
A 14th Century castle built by the most powerful family of Bologna. What began as a lookout tower and defensive structure morphed during the Rainassance into a luxurious country residence for nobility and then was transformed again in the 19th Century into a summer palace for the Falzoni Gallerani family of Cento.
Discover more →Corte Eremo
Curtatone, Mantua
Only four months after the earthquakes destroyed the Castle of Galeazza and forced the association to move on, we inaugurated our new location in and around a 17th Century villa just minutes from Mantua. It was here, around the threshing floor and in an abandoned cow barn, that Clark created a new garden and nursery that he called the Hortus Horrei.
Discover more →La Macchina Fissa
Borgo Virgilio, Mantua
Macchina in italian means car or machine, and Fissa means stationary, not moving. So why La Macchina Fissa? This is what Italians called the pump that was used both to irrigate fields in the summer and drain fields to avoid flooding in the winter. It involved some complicated canal digging and water-level locks, but hydraulic works have been going on around Mantua for over a thousand years.
Discover more →Podere Il Cerro
Lugagnano Val d'Arda, Piacenza
A new chapter begins. We are preparing our next location for you! Family and friends who already know us are welcome to join in the first few months of cleaning and restoration of our new home in the hills above Castell'Arquato. As of January 2027, we will open our doors to newcomers and guests who prefer arriving when the worst of the work is done.
Discover more →