Bucket-List Rowing Adventures - Spring 2024

From our cozy office in Tuscany, looking out over our sleepy rowing basin, it's easy to feel that Spring is far away, that all of our adventures are still in the distant future, and that Summer 2024 is a futuristic realm worthy of sci-fi speculation.

But as I am reminded every January when the cycle of regatta prep, training, travel plans, and visitors is "less than a month away!" ... Spring comes early to Tuscany! And to China. And to Sicily. And to Greece, Croatia, Apulia, and almost every other destination we visit. Meanwhile, our local youth and masters rowers are preparing for selection trials and going to away-regattas, all while our squad of local volunteers is weed-whacking and buoy-placing for our own regattas.

What does all this wintery reflection mean? It means flights should be booked, hotels explored, and restaurants tasted for our 2024 Rowing Vacations!

First up in February: three masters teams from Sweden will be coming to San Miniato for winter training. They will be staying at a farmhouse one kilometer from the lake, with big kitchens for cooking up vats of pasta. They'll have eights, fours, quads and a bevy of smaller boats to use while they are here, as well as coaching launches and one of our coaches to assist theirs. Here's the farmhouse:

March will bring us a group from Canada to enjoy Tuscany in its first blush of Spring and then at the end of the month, a mixture of masters from Australia, the US, France and Italy will be exploring Sicily with us. There will be several non-rowing spouses as well who couldn't possibly miss all the food, history and beauty of Sicily. For the first time we'll be staying in two different locations: first in Mondello (the beach suburb of Palermo) and then in Taormina (which needs no introduction!). This will allow us to see more of the historical jewels on the East Coast of Sicily, like the Greek theater in Taormina, the mosaics of Piazza Armerina, or natural wonders like Mt Etna is the lava is flowing. We'll row in at least three different places and meet local rowers as well. We highly recommend brushing up on Sicilian history before this trip: the number of overlapping conquerors is virtually infinite! Details here: https://www.rowingvacations.com/week-ideas/row-sicily!!!-

On the cusp of March and April we'll FINALLY be heading back to China! We cannot wait! We had a trip planned for May 2020: bet you can guess how that went! Last year seemed fine to travel but there was still a lot of lingering mistrust. This year, China has decided to actively encourage tourism and has waived visa requirements for a handful of EU countries as well as Malaysia and Thailand. Not for Americans or Canadians yet but getting a visa is not as hard as you think. We will be visiting our favorite cities Hangzhou and Suzhou, as well as a couple of other rowing jewels. The dates are March 28 to April 4, 2024.

April in Tuscany brings...rowing, regattas, wildflowers and that special soup they make in Lucca! Easter fairs, sunny days, kittens frolicking in the high grass....it's all there to be soaked up. Mid-month brings us to Venice and the Vogalonga which is the 19th of May this year. We will be in Tuscany beforehand, exploring and trying out the boat line-ups, then head north Friday morning with the coastal quads and gigs, as well as the coastal 8+ which our youth team will be rowing down the course.

We have a few seats left for coxswains or rowers in mixed boats, you'll meet up with in Venice on Saturday for a practice row then Sunday is race day. Get in touch soon if you want to row the Vogalonga.

Tons of stuff happening past April, of course, just check out website for more info! Special for 2024 will be never-before explored destinations around the Mediterranean as well as a Strokes & Spokes tour for rowers who also love cycling.

Happy Rowing,

Eliza & Enzo and all the staff at Rowing Vacations ASD