Your host Susana left her native England when she was nine months old. To travel the world with her painter father and adventurous mother. At the age of six her parents were the first family to travel from Mexico City through South America and half of Africa. In a Land Rover before a Pan American Highway really existed. She witnessed a world of diversity and magic that has colored the way she looks at life. She speaks five languages,  Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and her native English, and is in love with people of all backgrounds and histories.

She chose a career as a dancer first studying ballet and then modern dance. She was invited to join the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in New York with whom she traveled around the world performing. Robert Greskovic of the Village Voice wrote of her, “ Ever since Susana Hayman- Chaffey was showcased in a solo and duet by Merce Cunningham she has been on the map as one of the most extraordinary dancers of this decade” just a small excerp of the review.

She founded her Elan Vita  mindfulness method in New York in 1988 after a devastating car accident where she lost both her parents. It was her way to survive and help others along the way. Her first book “Love, Please” A memoir of Destiny, Loss and Healing published in 2013 available on Amazon was her way of passing on to others what she learned from that tragic experience.

A lifelong dream to buy a villa in Tuscany became a reality in 1989 when she and her Japanese architect husband bought a beautiful villa in the Crete Senesi famous for their eroding clay hills, known for white truffle hunting, picturesque vineyards and olive groves. The villa dated back to 1896 and became the setting for her first adventure, receiving guests to provide this  same level of service. Long before anyone else had even thought to offset this type of holiday.

She continued this adventure 14 years later when she sold her villa in Tuscany and bought a villa in Acapulco, Mexico where she received guests and offered a seaside experience for her guests. In 2009 she moved to Los Angeles where she wrote her memoir and her second book “Joy” a little book about fundamental truths that hold deep-seated complexities; while teaching her Elan Vita method of mindfulness to students at her studio. In 2022 she returned to Rome to continue her affair with Italy that started when she came to live here with her parents in 1959. Susana is motivated to pick up where she left off because of her deep love for all that is Italy and the extraordinary richness it has to offer, proudly wanting to share the magic with her new guests. She lives in Rome as of 2022.