How this Came to Be

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be the host.

The host of an aesthetically and emotionally rich gathering in Italy. The one I wish I'd been alive for a hundred years ago, up in the hills above Florence, where writers and artists and fascinating people gathered for good food, long conversations, and the kind of relationships that form when remarkable people are unhurried and in a beautiful place together.

The salon

I have spent more than fifteen summers in Italy. Many springs, autumns, and winters too. I have read Wharton, James, Berenson, Origo. I've written papers about the people behind the Renaissance. Not the ones creating the art but the ones funding it, envisioning it, and designing the legacy of it. I confess I have chronic nostalgia for something I never actually lived through.

This spring, I am turning that nostalgia into something beautiful.

The place

One woman has inspired me like no other. I never had the pleasure of meeting Iris Origo, but when I came upon her autobiography I felt as if she had written it for me. She was a woman who faced the restrictions set out for her in the world and transcended them. She did so creatively, expansively, and with grace. Everything she did was driven by what she referred to as her "affections."

Together with her husband Antonio, Iris created a school, a hospital, a wartime orphanage. Antonio led the transformation of the farms into the thriving fertile land it is today. Meanwhile, Iris enlisted Cecil Pinsent — the architect whose work defined the great private gardens of early twentieth century Tuscany, and the mastermind behind Berenson's garden at Villa I Tatti, now the Harvard Center in Fiesole, and the garden at her own childhood home, the Villa Medici. Together they turned clay, unfertile hills into what I believe is the most singularly beautiful view in the world.

Not a view she inherited. A view she created.

That is vision. And La Foce is where I am bringing this salon to life.

I will be joined by my husband Noshir Contractor, also a Northwestern professor. Between us we have hosted more than a few gatherings where the conversation outlasted the wine. This one will have better wine and considerably better accommodations. Our wine will be curated by legendary winemaker Donatella Cinelli-Colombini.

What this is

Twelve suites. Ten nights. Shared meals, long afternoons, unhurried conversation, and space for whatever you are in the middle of making or thinking through.

The days will be lightly structured — salon conversations, optional painting, optional excursions into the valley — and deliberately unscheduled. We will not fill every hour. That is the point.

This is not a retreat. Not a conference. Not a tour.

It is a gathering. A salon, in the original sense of the word, named for the room where it happened, the living room, the salone. The place where people came together to be alive to each other and to ideas. The tradition stretches from the Enlightenment parlors of Paris to the hills above Florence, where Bernard Berenson gathered writers, artists, and intellectuals at Villa I Tatti for decades. That is the gathering I am reviving at La Foce.

Logistics

Residents can opt for either 5 or 10 nights:
10 nights - April 23-May 3
5 nights - Either April 23 - April 28 or April 28 - May 3

Salon participants share the actual cost of the villa and meals equally. There is no markup — contributions reflect only the direct costs of the gathering.

Who is this for

People who appreciate beauty. People who love to read. People who profess, or write, or paint, or make things. People somewhere in the middle of something who could use five or ten days to think it through in a place that asks something of you.

Expression of Interest

The Salon at La Foce begins April 23, 2027, just as the wisteria comes into full bloom.

If you'd like to join, I'd love to hear from you.

Leslie DeChurch is the Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Communication at Northwestern University and leads executive education and study abroad programs in Italy through Northwestern University.

Photo credits: Emma Innocenti at https://www.innocentistudio.com/