TUSCANY, ITALY – I’m sitting in a Florentine trattoria called I’Brindellone, a glass of Chianti in one hand and a novel in the other. This is not, for the record, my usual pre-dinner routine. Normally, I’d be frantically scrolling through emails, but here, the only notification I’m getting is from my stomach, which is gently rumbling in protest of the neglected plate of bruschetta in front of me. No one else seems to care. Around a long wooden table, a dozen people are passionately debating a fictional character’s life choices. My kind of people.
The walls of this place are a history lesson, lined with stark black-and-white photos of the city’s devastating 1966 flood. The group is pointing at them with the excitement usually reserved for spotting a celebrity. The reason? Author Sarah Winman once sat here, saw these very images, and was inspired to write the novel we’re all discussing, Still Life. I half-expect to see a plaque: “On this spot, a plot was hatched.”
This is a Books in Places reading retreat, and it’s part of a new wave of holidays where the main attraction isn’t a museum or a beach, but a well-thumbed paperback. Forget sunbathing; we’re here for some serious plot-bathing.
“I was suckered in by a Facebook ad,” confesses Lyn Margerison, a wonderfully forthright participant from Dorset, as if admitting to a guilty pleasure. “It was a picture of a book and a glass of wine in a Florentian piazza. The caption asked, ‘Do you enjoy reading books in the places in which they are set?’ My antennae were immediately tweaked. I thought, ‘That’s a dangerously specific question aimed directly at my soul.'”
Lyn is a veteran of these retreats, having travelled from Budapest to Florence with her Kindle as her carry-on. “For me, it’s the perfect combo. I’ve always tried to read a book set where I’m holidaying, but this is that with built-in friends. I leave with a renewed love for reading and a to-be-read list that threatens to collapse my bedside table.”
The Mastermind Behind the Bookish Getaways
The man responsible for this literary jet-setting is Paul Wright, who started Books in Places in 2023 as a clever way to vacation with his own book club. It turns out a lot of people wanted in on the action. He now orchestrates trips everywhere from the sun-drenched ruins of Crete that inspired Victoria Hislop’s The Island to the sleepy streets of Monroeville, Alabama, for To Kill a Mockingbird.
“Location is everything,” Wright tells me, with the fervour of a literary tour guide. “A scene that was just words suddenly breathes when you’ve walked the same alleyways or tasted the same food as the characters.” He’s not wrong. After wandering Florence all day, reading a passage set in the Piazza della Signoria feels less like reading and more like augmented reality.
And this isn’t just a niche hobby for a handful of bibliophiles. According to a 2025 survey, nearly half of UK travellers now pick destinations based on how good they are for reading. Let that sink in. People are choosing Italy over Ibiza for the quality of the reading light.
For the Ladies Who Lit
Other companies are putting their own spin on the trend. Megan Christopher runs Ladies Who Lit, offering retreats exclusively for women and non-binary travellers. “The book community is largely women,” she explains, “and we wanted to extend that safe, connective space into travel.”
Her retreats are less about a rigid itinerary and more about the pure, unadulterated joy of having uninterrupted reading time, with a private chef on hand so you don’t have to decide what’s for dinner. “That, for a lot of women who spend their lives making decisions for everyone else, is a rare luxury,” Christopher adds. I nod so vigorously I almost spill my wine. The luxury of not having to choose between the penne and the risotto is a powerful draw.
The Grown-Up Story Circle
Meanwhile, in New York, a company called Page Break takes a more intense approach. Guests read a single novel together over a weekend, taking turns reading passages aloud like a grown-up, wine-fueled story circle.
Founder Mikey Friedman is a believer in the “magic of shared reading.” He points out that as adults, we read alone. “But research shows reading aloud improves memory and promotes social connection. I see it on every retreat: once everyone has read a few pages aloud, the barriers fall.”
As I listen to the animated discussions around me, I get it. This is more than a holiday; it’s a book club without borders. We’re not just tourists; we’re temporary residents of the story.
So, as I take a final sip of wine and look at the flood photos on the wall, I feel a connection not just to Florence, but to the story we shared here. My suitcase will be a little heavier on the return flight, thanks to a few extra books. But my brain? It feels wonderfully, delightfully full.
\— Reporting from Tuscany, Elena for hoptraveler.com