7 Nights
Thank you for your interest in the Lacemaking Holiday in Tuscany with Carole Smith. This is an opportunity for lacemakers of all levels to join together for a week of stitching in the beautiful Villa Cheli at the foot of the Pisan hills.
Carole will be providing 30 hours of tuition split between 3-hour morning and afternoon sessions over 5 days. The studio is well-equipped with natural light, worktables, magnifying lamps, and air conditioning. Villa Cheli also has an outdoor pool for relaxation after an enjoyable day of making lace.
The Italian chefs at Villa Cheli will create dishes suited to each class, taking into consideration any dietary requests. Menus are designed to excite your palate and give a taste of the local cuisine.
Nadine & Mark will be available to assist you throughout the booking process and your stay, from airport transfers to dietary needs.
During the week, there is one day set aside for an excursion to Pisa, where a guided city tour has been arranged. After the tour, you will have the rest of the day to explore the city and its iconic tower.
This is a great opportunity to join like-minded people, make friendships, and learn and share techniques from each other and the teacher. Don't miss out on this unforgettable lacemaking holiday in the Tuscan Hills.
Carole Smith
Carole began lacemaking at the age of ten at a class in Hertfordshire. A few years later, following a family move to Aberdeen, her lacemaking developed with annual courses from Kitty Mason and tutors visiting the area to speak at the local Lace Day such as Pamela Nottingham and Veronica Sorensen.
Since 2001 Carole has joined the group traveling to Brugge to be taught by Anne-Marie Verbeke-Billet and Magda Malisse. The opportunity to learn from these experts in their field has been invaluable not only in the making of Flemish laces but in designing them too.
Now based in Perth, Carole teaches at courses around Scotland and, with a friend, has recently taken over the running on the annual Edinburgh Lace Course.
Carole enjoys teaching a wide variety of bobbin laces ranging from Torchon and British laces such as Bucks Point to the Flemish laces – Flanders, Binche, Mechlin, Brugge Flower Lace and Duchesse.
Carole is happy to help and support both beginners and more experienced lacemakers to develop their skills.
Creative Experiences Customer Rating:
5 out of 5 stars
Please go to the class you would like to book. You can find the button to book on the top right. Please enter all your details and you will receive a booking confirmation. In case you have any questions before booking, please contact us by email on info@creative experiences.com or click the enquiry button. We would love to hear from you.
To book your holiday with Creative Experience, there is 20% non-refundable deposit due. This deposit must be paid on time of booking.
Please contact us on info@creative-experiences.com if you require a different payment structure.
You can pay your holiday by online payment. We work with Stripe which is our online payment system. It is very secure and we have been working with Stripe for many years.
Creative Experiences is run by MNR Travel Ltd. MNR Travel stands for Mark and Nadine Roger and we have been working in the travel industry for more than 20 years. We have run The Alpine Experience in Les Carroz, France in the past 10 years. The Alpine Experience offered embroidery, lacemaking, beadwork and textile art classes with fabulous teachers from all over the world. Since 2023, we have launched Creative Experiences to take all craft classes on the road and travel with our tutors and guests to the most amazing places in the world to craft.
We do enjoy all crafts and hope to provide as many holidays around the world in the future.
Once you have booked your holiday with us, you will be send a booking confirmation with all information.
We advise you to buy travel insurance for your holiday with us.
Creative Experiences will only book hotels with disabled access. We cannot guarantee that we will have disabled access in private villas but please contact us to confirm.
We are Nadine and Mark Roger and we are a small family company who have been working in travel and hospitality for over 20 years. We are organising craft holidays all over Europe and we will always be with you on the travel. We have many years of experiences with selling holidays to our clients and we always try our best to ensure you have the best holiday.
Yes of course, your husband/wife, partner or friend can join your holiday as a non-participant.
Your partner will receive a £250 discount on there their double occupancy rate.
We are more than happy to help organising different activities for the non-participant guests. The non-participant must share a bedroom with you in a double or twin occupancy.
You have different options to travel from the airport or train station to the venue. You can book with us shared transfers where we offer you to come and pick you up at the specific time for an additional charge. You can organise your own private transfer such as taxi or any other private transfers companies at your own expense. We can help you finding train times if you want to come by train from the airport or train station to the venue.
You would like to share a bedroom with someone to share the cost but you have no one to share with? We are happy to talk to other clients who have booked on that class if anybody would like to share with you. However, we cannot guarantee that it will be successful.
We will only offer accommodation/ bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.