Words can not describe how much we enjoyed our trip to Tuscany! It is truly a magical place! The days were perfectly balanced between the serenity of yoga practice and the excitement of exploring the hill towns of Tuscany. Our hosts were so gracious, every meal was a delight. Great job organizing everything. Thanks so very much.

Our host Franz presides over an 800-year-old organic farming villa tucked into a forested Tuscan hillside about an hour southwest of Florence about 20 minutes from Sienna and the Chianti district. Renovated in the late 80s by his Mom, a devoted follower of Osha, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and avid world traveler, the estate, Podere Ebbio, has been restored from the neglect many rural properties suffered after WWII, into an authentic experience of the Italian countryside, close to the earth, bursting with life, sage colored olive groves, rambling vineyards, vegie gardens, rollicking animal life and storied wildlife (the rooting wild boars that visit at night and leave patches of snouted earth). At Ebbio the animal life greets you in the form of the welcoming trio of Mystico, the elder, and the alpha, a vocal pomeranean, Rinko, the playful 2 yr old Bernese and Rocco, the new kid on the block a sweet, deferring 3yr old Rhodesian Ridgeback. Besides barking a welcome to all visitors and perimeter transgressors, they play tag with the 1/2 dozen or more cat brood, who are always on time for meals in the vine-covered garden veranda where we have all our meals (except on occasion when the air gets a bit crisp. Then we retire to the expansive 2nd floor dining room/living room/great-room-like cathedral-ceilinged central room where we hang out in the evenings around the cavernous fireplace).

My darling wife Joyce co-manages the trip each year, drives the 2nd van when Franz doesn’t join us, helps with Italian translation, Internet and Cel Phone use issues, chief photgrapher (on her IPhone), provides emotional sanctuary for moi, celebrates each year by bringing a toy or book for each of Franz’s children (who live with their Mom, Isabella, now in Arezzo, a nearby city. Joyce and I decided to spend our first two days of the trip based at Ebbio with Franz, exploring  the local area. Franz is a great host, because he sees the potential of a situation and he knows everyone in the area, so he has offered to take us to a hot-spring spa nearby where he ‘ll meet his wife and have a family day and have time to spend with us. Isabella met us with the charming, energetic and mischiefous 5yr old Gabri and sweet, playful 3 yr old Julia.  After entering the snazzy spa main desk area, we change in the comfortable locker rooms and head out to the laidback lounging-by-the-pool area. Here, the pools are many, each hot, warm or cool, the faint smell of sulfur and what I would call a great collection of Italian and European lounge lizards, chilling (or warming) in these healing waters from the earth, walking around in terry-cloth bathrobes or just their suits, with the ever-present olive groves and vineyards in the mid-ground of the landscape, rolling rocky and verdant hills in the near distance. There are all types here. It’s hard to tell too much about anyone. There are a few families with young children, a few teens, but mostly adults clearly committed to chilling out, letting down their hair, melting into the soothing waters, slowing down and rejuvenating.

Joyce loves spending time with Gabri and Julia, developing her Italian. They’re much more flunt in English than we are in Italian. A rare, brief rainshower passes through, chasing the lounge lizards into the spacious indoor pools. I find one of the larger cooler pools and try to peel off a few laps, loosening the tensions from the relatively easy Boston to Zurich to Florence flight. After a snack at the spa cafe, Franz takes us all to his favorite pizza haunt in Sienna where it seems he is a dear old family friend. Most places we go, Franz has close friends. You could say, he connects! He’s full of life. Full of things to say. When we’re toodling around the Tuscan countryside in his VW van his banter with the children illustrates the beauty of the Italian language. There’s a quality of an uplifting sing-song playful melody bubbling forth like a streaming marble Piazza fountain.

I know I’m waking up at Ebbio when I place my feet on the polished, large, uneven, rectangular brick-like tiles often found in Italian farmhouses and homes. Smooth, glossy, uneven, bumpy, radiant, cool to the un-slippered foot.  It’s Saturday and time to meet our group at the airport in Florence at 11am. Joyce and I each drive a van in. The drive is getting more familiar. This is my fourth trip, third program. But I’m still getting the route down cold and there is one wrong turn on the way in and one on the way home. But we don’t lose much time on the brief hour-long drive. Everyone showed up, in good shape.

A smooth transition at the airport helps us have a smooth transition to inhabit our base for the week, entering the world of authentic Tuscany, a rambling stone farm, sunny rooms with big tall windows looking out onto various views, back up the farmland into the forested ridge, out across the valley dotted with steeples, towns, walled castle-like mountain-top towns, a patchwork of fields, forests and fortresses. Everyone gets settled into their rooms, lunch is in 15 minutes

Our first meal, al fresco, of course, is full of oohs and aahs. The food as Ebbio is as good as it gets. It’s not fancy. It’s not complex. You know it’s fresh. Soups. Rice or pasta. Fresh romaine. Tomatoes that zing with flavor. Fresh bread. Cheeses with names I’ve never heard before, fruits of all types, pitchers of wine and pitchers of water, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Pasta with avocado pesto sauce, pumpkin soup, risotto, absolutely “produced today” fresh ricotta. And when you’re totally satisfied after munching down on this feast, some little dessert emerges from the kitchen. Italian pastry, a pound cake,tarts, custards. Each night it’s another unexpected treat. Seems that Franz has been chatting up a local baker who sends us up a treat each day at the end of the day. She’s happy to have a captive audience.

Franz runs the farm and “inn” with the help of a sister and brother from Rumania, Stella and Dino. They are the picture of ease in service to Franz qand us. Throughout the week they are there at every turn to make our stay comfortable. They won’t let us carry our bags up stairs. Bags are taken to our rooms. They serve and clean up after every meal and that’s what they do between their full list of chores, cleaning our rooms and the bathrooms, feeding the livestock, horses, mules, chickens, dogs and cats. One morning during a strole after breakfast we hear Dino whistling a tune. He’s up on a ladder propped into an olive tree. He’s trimming the branches. Another day he has plowed the entire field slated for a sunflower crop next year. Both he and Stella seem to be up and at it early each morning and into the evening. The sincerity of their service warms our hearts each day. Another endearing aspect of our experience in Italy. Sincerity. Generosity. Graciousness.

One of our guests, Sharon, a retired teacher from Connecticut, put it best when she wrote, “I revelled each day, thinking it can’t get any better than this. And each day I was surprised with new experiences that built into the most satisfying vacations I’ve ever taken”.

Next year’s program has been scheduled and I am taking registrations for it now. It’s October 3 – 10 (again), the first week in October, Sunday through Sunday. Click here to receive more information.

Gentle Yoga Immersion. Masterfully led yoga twice a day, before breakfast and dinner.

Daily touring, tasting, exploring and shopping in the beautiful cities and hilltop villages of Tuscany.

Sharing the journey with like-minded gentle yogins.

Check out the details and travel tips in our Tuscany Registration Form

Times have been very busy since summer 2008. In August 2008, I had the honor of co-leading a monthlong 200-Hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher Certification program with the brilliant Priti Robyn Ross (www.LifeAsYoga.com). The following November, I co-led a second monthlong Certification program with my long-time delightful colleague Megha Buttenheim of Let Your Yoga Dance (www.letyouryogadance.com). In both cases it was gratifying to see a diverse group of individuals grow, develop, and find their voices and confidence as Kripalu yoga teachers. Everyone ended the month with the confidence to bring the experience of yoga, so dear to their hearts, to their communities, their friends, and their families.

Currently I do not have a teacher training scheduled, but am working on some new program titles for aspiring and for experienced yoga teachers.

In between each monthlong 200-Hour Certification program, I held my first 2-day weekend Gentle Yoga program. I generally lean towards holding 3- and 5-day programs, however this 2-day program surprised me with its success and impact. The 2-day program offered individuals who would otherwise be unable to access Gentle Yoga a chance to get their feet wet. More experienced individuals mixed well with the group too. Both groups—beginners and more advanced—had just enough time to revitalize their practices during this two-day intensive. The program was such a success that I have scheduled a second two-day retreat for next October 30^th, Halloween weekend.

My wife Joyce and I traveled to Italy again for our second annual Gentle Yoga in Tuscany program, a yoga-vacation combination. We have hosted this program for two years and find that each group brings its own adventures and joys. This once-in-a-life-time sort of experience was had by our charmed and charming group of 12. You can call it a success when everyone is singing Beatles’ songs during the van-ride back to the villa at the end of yet another adventure. We explored an ancient hilltop and trunded through the rolling Tuscan scenery singing song after song. It is those moments we sustainably create again and again in our Gentle Yoga in Tuscany program. We’ve fallen in love with Italy and plan to explore it and create new day-trips each year. If you have suggestions or ideas for our Tuscany program, please email me.

In 2008 I produced two new Gentle Yoga CDs. One is a fourth in the Gentle Yoga Series and thus aptly titled Gentle IV. Gentle IV covers a sequence that has evolved over the last couple of years into the quintessential gentle yoga morning practice. I lead this sequence every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday morning at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.

The second CD begins a new series titled Invigoration. This series will be in the gentle style of mindful, methodical yoga with options for all levels. The first of the Invigoration series is called Fanning The Fire for the abdominal pumping practice, Agni Sera Dhauti, which stimulates vitality in the digestive fire, tones the abdominal muscles and massages all the organs in the belly including the heart, lungs, kidneys. It also includes a standing sequence with the Eagle Arms routine that releases tensions from the shoulders, neck and upper back. The Invigoration series has led me in an exciting, new direction. It constitutes what I am calling Intermediate Gentle Yoga and helped bring forth the first Intermediate Gentle Yoga program “Fanning The Fire,” to be offered at Kripalu the weekend of April 10-12, 2009.

Two CDs in one year, a trip to Tuscany, and more marked 2008 as a successful year full of thriving. The year came to a close with our annual New Year’s Joy of Gentle program held at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts. It was a wonderful way to close the year.

In January 2009 I ventured down to the beach resort town of Lewes, Delaware, to offer my first program, Men’s Yoga, at Eddie and Wendy Harrolds’ Center for Whole Self Healing. They are developing a phenomenal program center offering weekend and weeklong programs with a fascinating list of teachers such as Larrisa Carlson, Ken Nelson, Terrel Broussard and Kim Larson. Lewes, Delaware is an easy drive from anywhere in the mid-Atlantic region and is nestled along the eastern seashore.

Our Men’s Yoga program was a success with men from all over the region. The magic of men coming together and dropping their protective armoring continues to inspire me. As such, we’ve scheduled a 3-day Men’s Yoga Immersion for the July 30th weekend to be held at the Whole Self Healing. To find out more information about this program, click here.

I should mention that this weekend I will be launching our first ever email newsletter. The aim of the Gentle Yogi newsletter will be to help keep you up to date on workshops and programs I will be leading in the upcoming months and will offer thoughts on topics relevant to Gentle Yoga Practice like Healthy Living principles, Yoga for Fitness, and the integrative relaxation practice of Yoga Nidra, to name a few, The newsletter will also offer a forum for us to interact more regularly in hopes that I can stay current with your interest and needs as a gentle yogi or yogini. It will be a great opportunity to be in conversation.

In the works are podcasts for my asana sequences which will allow for a video version downloadable to your laptop or iPod. I am hoping to make Gentle Yoga as accessible as possible at home or on the go. Right now our plan is to launch our podcast system this May 2009. Stay tuned for updates on this venture.

If you have any thoughts or questions, please post your comment. Although I am unable to respond to every comment posted, I do read and remember all the responses I receive.

KYTA Members:  You will receive a $50 discount. Any student you bring will also receive a $50 discount.

See the Tuscany page and send an email to:Rudy@gentleyogi.com or respond to this post to request more information and the registration form, or if you have questions about booking flights.

“Words can not describe how much we enjoyed our trip to Tuscany! It is truly a magical place! The days were perfectly balanced between the serenity of yoga practice and the excitement of exploring the hill towns of Tuscany. Our hosts were so gracious, ¦every meal was a delight. Great job organizing everything. Thanks so very much.”

View Tuscany Slideshow!