I
Swim
07:10Feniglia, the pine beach on the Orbetello lagoon. The van leaves at ten past seven and comes back for breakfast. The water in September is warmer than the air.
September is
the second summer.
Six days in the Maremma for fourteen women. Swimming before breakfast, writing until lunch, long tables until late, and nobody asking you to manifest anything.
Podere Gelsomina, CapalbioFeniglia beach · 25 minLago di Burano · below the house14 women · 6 nightsJune and September 2027
06:40The idea
Not a cleanse. Not a reset. Six days of the things a grown woman rarely gets in a row: cold water in the morning, a closed door until lunch, a table nobody clears at nine, and thirteen other women worth talking to.
Ottavia Sereni, your host
Come as you are. O.
Three things,
done properly.
Everything else is optional, including the things on this list. Most women do all three by Tuesday.
II
Write
09:30 to 13:00The writing room with Philippa Ashdown. Doors closed, phones in the basket. A memoir, a letter, a novel you started in 2011, or nothing at all and a long look out of the window.
III
Sit long
20:30 until lateOne table under the pines, every night. Rosa cooks from what came out of the garden that morning. Nobody gets up to clear, and nobody is in a hurry to.
09:30The days
A week,
by the sun.
Pick a day. Every week is the same shape and never quite the same week. This is the September plan.
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13:15The house
Podere Gelsomina.
A nineteenth century farmhouse in the hills above Capalbio, with cork oaks on one side and, on a clear day, the Argentario on the other. The Lago di Burano reserve sits below the house. You will hear it before you see it.
- Rooms
- Eleven, all with their own bathroom. Four twins for friends who come together.
- Land
- Twenty two hectares of cork oak, olive and wild fennel.
- Water
- A spring-fed pool, unheated and honest. The sea is twenty five minutes away.
- Wifi
- In the kitchen only. On purpose.
- Getting here
- We collect from Rome Fiumicino or Capalbio station. About an hour and forty five minutes from the airport.
The kitchen. Rosa Bigi cooks from Manciano, twenty minutes up the road. Breakfast is slow, lunch is light, dinner is not. Tell us what you don't eat and she will simply not cook it.
17:30The women who hold the week
Ottavia Sereni
Founder and host
Twenty years as a features editor in Milan and London, the last eight spent half the year in Capalbio. She started La Seconda Estate in 2022, after a September she describes as the first in a decade when nobody needed anything from her before lunch.
"Write the bad version first. It is the only one that gets finished."
Philippa Ashdown
The writing room
Novelist, four books, London. Runs the mornings. Bring the thing you have been meaning to write, or nothing at all.
"No chanting. Just strong legs and a good night's sleep."
Ife Coleman
Movement on the terrace
Strength, mobility and breath, from Lisbon. Every body and every age, at the end of the afternoon when the stone is still warm.
From past weeks
"I am fifty eight and I had not been in the sea at seven in the morning since I was a girl. I went every single day."
"Nobody asked me what I do. By Wednesday I had forgotten to mind."
"Friday's long table, everyone reading one page. Mine is still on the fridge."
"I came alone and left with four women I now call on Sundays."
20:30Reserve
Choose your week,
then your window.
1 · The week
2 · The room
Your window at Podere Gelsomina
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Ottavia
Included
Six nights, every meal and the wine that goes with it, the writing room, movement, the van to the sea, a day at the Tarot Garden, transfers from Rome Fiumicino.Not included
Flights, travel insurance, massages in the old stable (from €110), and the ceramics you will carry home from Capalbio.22:00Questions
Do I have to write?
No. The room is there every morning and so is the window. About a third of the women read, a few sleep, and one sat with a sketchbook for six days and drew the same olive tree.
How fit do I need to be?
If you can walk a beach and climb a flight of stone stairs, you are fit enough. Ife adjusts everything, and the swim can be a paddle.
Can I come on my own?
Most women do. The private rooms are for exactly that, and the twins are for friends who book together.
What if I need to cancel?
The deposit moves to another week within eighteen months. Cancel more than ninety days out and the balance is refunded in full.