Arts & Culture
Essential for human flourishing, arts and culture contribute significantly to one’s personal growth and well-being. At the Medici Way, we commit ourselves to providing uniquely curated means to engage critical thinking while fostering a shared appreciation for European cultural heritage.
Upcoming Journeys
Art of the Harvest: Exploration of the Art & Food of Tuscany
Tuscany
October 2-9, 2027
Immerse yourself in the heart of Tuscany with The Medici Way, an exclusive journey crafted for artists and connoisseurs alike. Experience the vibrant harvest season firsthand as we participate in the authentic rhythms of one of Italy’s premier olive and wine estates. While most of our journeys are created for private patrons, this is your rare invitation to join an intimate group and truly live the Medici life.
Our focus will be on the visual and culinary arts as we explore the passion which continues to define this romantic region of Tuscany. During this sojourn, you will experience first-hand why so many creative and intellectual minds choose Tuscany to be fervently motivated by the presence of the region’s mighty cultural achievements and the ambience its people extend to their guests.
The heart of the tour consists of a series of painting workshops with renowned international artists and is complemented by a unique day of cooking class and visit to a gold medal-winning estate.
Additional Details
Occupancy: Secure your place in our exclusive art studio workshop, strictly limited to just eight studio artist participants. We also welcome eight non-studio guests to join our full itinerary of immersive excursions. While the studio artists refine their craft, non-studio guests will enjoy bespoke, curated cultural experiences at no additional cost.
Cost per person (USD): $4,750 per guest . All land inclusive, based on double occupancy +$1,200 single supplement
● $1,000 to hold your spot. Remaining due in two equal payments on 2 April and 2 July 2027.
Cost includes: 7 nights’ accommodation on a historic Medici estate in Tuscany, Italy. All land transportation, lodging, meals (breakfast and lunch/dinner daily), wines, entry fees, studio guidance, cooking class, and art supplies provided.
Attendees must cover airfare to and from the villa, airport transportation, travel insurance, and any additional meals.
Join the Waitlist
These experiences are at capacity. Please contact info@mediciway.com to be added to the waitlist.
Sacred Spaces Art Retreat
Tuscany
September 28- October 3, 2026
Between the earth and the sky, built spaces in which we dwell serve a function, but also can take on significance related to our very essence as human beings.
During our week together in Tuscany we will explore the shadowy mysteries of centuries —even millennia— of architecture. We’ll spend time responding on site in the monumental sacred spaces of Tuscany with dry and wet media.
Using watercolors and water-soluble graphite drawing, we will pursue the weight, textures and weathered permanence of stone and seek to capture the rhythms of light and shadow of passageways and the fleeting passage of time. We'll draw inspiration from our daily excursions to Medieval hilltowns, country churches and chapels that are off the tourist path
Additional Details
Occupancy: This journey is at capacity. Use the button or email info@mediciway.com to be added to the waiting list.
Cost per person (USD): A $500 deposit reserves your spot!
$2,950 (double with shared bath)
$3,300 (double with ensuite bath)
$3,650 (single with shared bath)
$3,950 (single with ensuite bath)
Cost includes: pre-trip planning, airport group transfers, 5 nights lodging, 12 quality meals, daily excursions, art workshop with instruction, group ground transportation, and all necessary art supplies. Additional pre/post day extensions optional for those who desire extra time to relax and refresh.
Attendees must cover airfare to and from the villa, airport transportation, travel insurance, and any additional meals.
Guest Artist
During the years she spent living and working in Italy for an American study abroad program, Michelle Arnold Paine steeped herself in the Renaissance masters, the rhythms of the Catholic liturgy, and the intimacy and beauty of daily Italian life. After her return from Orvieto, Italy she received a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and went on to earn an MFA from University of New Hampshire.
Michelle’s work as an artist centers around expressing the timeless spaces of European architecture, and the narratives recounted within them. She has exhibited across the US and her paintings have appeared in many publications which seek to explore elements of the divine.
For nearly twenty years she has worked one-on-one with clients to create paintings of the architecture which anchor the significant moments in life: weddings, anniversaries, pilgrimages, homes. In both her exhibition work and her commissioned paintings, she brings her combination of precise rendering and spiritual insight into into the lives of others.
Santa Maria della Pieve, Oil on Canvas, 40"w x 60"h, Michelle Arnold Paine
de-Light Artist Retreat
Tuscany
October 5-10, 2026
Humans were created for delight, placed in Eden, a garden whose name means “Delight”. We still live in a world full of beauty and wonder, overflowing from a God who delights in His creation and delights in us, His people.
Focusing on “delight” in any guileless way seems almost offensive to contemporary culture. In a time of great upheaval and heartache, the idea of meditating on and seeking out delight seems out of step. But perhaps this is just what we need, a holy search for the beauty and goodness of our world and the truth that God delights in us. Perhaps this is the antidote for the cynicism and nihilism and despair of our age. Perhaps learning to delight and how to be delighted is one way we can love our neighbor and world better as we love and are loved by God
Additional Details
Scriptural meditation: “I was there, close to the Creator’s side as his master artist. Daily he was filled with delight in me as I playfully rejoiced before him. I laughed and played, so happy with what he had made, while finding my delight in the children of men.”
Proverbs 8:30-31 TPT
Workshop: Mix colors to see the nuance of various intensities and values in color. Look at art and nature to notice the beauty of the nuanced color, textured materials, playful repetition, and movement in composition.
Occupancy: This journey is at capacity. Use the button below or email info@mediciway.com to be added to the waiting list.
Cost per person (USD): A $500 deposit reserves your spot!
$2,950 (double with shared bath)
$3,300 (double with ensuite bath)
$3,650 (single with shared bath)
$3,950 (single with ensuite bath)
Cost includes: pre-trip planning, airport group transfers, 5 nights lodging, 12 quality meals, daily excursions, art workshop with instruction, group ground transportation, and all necessary art supplies. Additional pre/post day extensions optional for those who desire extra time to relax and refresh.
Attendees must cover airfare to and from the villa, airport transportation, travel insurance, and any additional meals or gelato they choose.
Guest Artist
Michelle Berg Radford has been enamored with landscape painting since she discovered the works of the Hudson River School and Vincent Van Gogh as a teenager. Michelle studied landscape painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she earned her MFA in Painting.
Michelle begins her landscapes by spending time getting to know a place through painting on location, hiking, and taking reference photos. Some paintings are completed on location, and others are created in the studio from memory, photos, and sketches. Color and mark-making are key elements in her paintings as she works to capture the spirit of a place while highlighting the beauty of the art materials and composition.
In addition to her painted landscapes, Michelle makes mixed media and assemblage works about motherhood and the richness of weaving together her roles as artist and mother, a combination that once bewildered her, but that has become a deep conceptual framework in her studio practice. Michelle lives in Greenville, SC, with her husband, Paul, and their three teenage children.