Have you ever felt like you were falling apart while trying to hold everything together?
This week on The Love Offering podcast, I’m joined by Angela Correll, author of the May Hollow Trilogy and her latest memoir, Restored in Tuscany. Angela shares the true story of how a crumbling villa in a small Italian village became the backdrop for healing a broken heart.
After a season of deep grief, Angela followed a dream to Tuscany with her husband—and discovered that it wasn’t just the house that needed restoring. In our conversation, we talk about beauty, grief, slow living, creativity, midlife transitions, and the God who meets us in the middle of our mess.
Grab your cappuccino and join us for a journey through Italy—and a gentle reminder that your soul is worth restoring.
Listen now and be encouraged to love God, others, and yourself a little more:
You can listen to the conversation here.
With love,
Rachael
P.S. Angela’s new book, Restored in Tuscany, is available wherever books are sold—and her next book coming this fall will take you even deeper into the heart of Italian village life!
Summary
Join us as we delve into Angela’s transformative journey of renovating a villa in the heart of Tuscany. Discover how this ambitious project not only reshaped a historic home but also catalyzed Angela’s personal growth. From overcoming unexpected challenges to embracing the serene beauty of the Tuscan landscape, Angela’s story is a testament to resilience and self-discovery. Tune in to explore the profound impact of this life-changing experience.
Description
What does it mean to be restored—body, mind, and soul? Author Angela Correll joins me on The Love Offering Podcast to share her memoir Restored in Tuscany. Through grief, beauty, and faith, Angela discovered God’s healing presence in the most unexpected places. May her story inspire you to find restoration in your own journey.
Transcript (AI Generated)
Rachael Adams (00:01.87)
Welcome to the Love Offering Podcast. I’m your host, Rachel Adams, author of Everyday Prayers for Love, learning to love God, others, and even yourself. Each week we dive into meaningful conversations about how to live out the greatest commandment, loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Whether through inspiring stories, practical tips, or biblical truths, I hope to encourage you to love boldly, live faithfully and reflect God’s love in your everyday life. My guest today is Angela Carell. Angela is the author of a beloved fiction trilogy, a dedicated entrepreneur, and a part-time Tuscan resident. Her latest book, Restored in Tuscany, is a beautifully vulnerable memoir about how renovating an old villa in a tiny Italian village led to healing her heart and renewing her soul. Angela, welcome to the Love Offering Podcast. I’m so happy to have you today.
Angela Correll (00:59.273)
Thank you, Rachel. I’m so happy to be here.
Rachael Adams (01:02.52)
So I think you might be one of the closest people that I’ve interviewed. You’re only about 30 minutes away from me, which is such a treat. But it’s amazing to me that you and I, we’ve actually never met. I knew who you were, I’ve read your books, I’ve gone to your bookstore, I’ve eaten at your restaurant, I’ve done all of the things, but actually have never met you face to face. So this is a real treat.
Angela Correll (01:08.725)
I’m calling God’s timing.
Rachael Adams (01:27.214)
That’s true. So I know we’re talking about restored in Tuscany, but I wanted to tell everybody your trilogy, your fiction series is phenomenal. It is one of my favorite Christian series that I’ve ever read. Then. So would you just maybe begin by telling us about your journey as a fiction writer?
Angela Correll (01:45.201)
Sure. Yeah, well, thank you. That really honors me so much. Yes, I wrote Grounded, Guarded, and Granted, and it is a fiction trilogy set here in Kentucky, but it’s really a coming home story. It’s about a young woman who is forced to leave her high-powered job in New York City as a, well, it’s not really a high power, but it’s high flying. She’s an international flight attendant and then she has to move back home and live on the farm with her grandmother. So it’s a story of two different generations, this grandmother and the granddaughter trying to learn how to love each other, honestly. The grandfather has passed away, the mother has been gone for a long time, so they’re just kind of left to figure out how to deal with each other when they’re very different personalities. And so that is a trilogy and part of it does take place in Italy is a story goes along. It’s a sweet, they’re sweet characters. think most people recognize somebody like the characters in the book. There’s some humor, a little bit of mystery, some romance. And I do want to say grounded is has been made into a movie by Great American Family. And so it’s going to be coming out in September of this year. So I’m so excited about that. And they filmed it here in Stanford where I live, which is great.
Rachael Adams (03:09.006)
heard rumors of that and so I’m so thankful to know that that’s true. I cannot wait to watch it. what a treat. Well, we’ll have to make sure to share that when it comes closer to time too. I’m so happy for you. That’s a dream come true. Isn’t it for you as a writer?
Angela Correll (03:21.549)
Thank you very much, very much. Such a dream, such a dream. And it was so fun to see the characters come to life. I’ve seen them come to life on stage through the Pioneer Playhouse, but then to actually see them translated onto film and with two amazing leads and Danica McKellar and Trevor Donovan was just so much fun.
Rachael Adams (03:43.298)
I can’t wait to watch it. Well, so tell us, I mean, you’re also an entrepreneur. I mentioned some of your businesses, your small town, you really brought it back to life. it’s honestly, I come quite frequently to shop and eat. And I think that that is just, I think I’m not the only one that does that because it is such a, it’s a beautiful, such a quaint town and a great place to visit. So tell us more about that.
Angela Correll (04:06.505)
Well, thank you. You know, actually a writer inspired me in so many ways. Jan Caren wrote the Midford series, which if anyone has not ever read those, I highly encourage it. Beautiful set of novels that you’ll just love set in a small town. And Jan inspired me in my writing, but kind of on a parallel track, I was reading about this little town in North Carolina where everybody lived and worked closely with all these different shops and about that time, our town had, like most rural towns in Kentucky, everything had moved to the bypass. And so there wasn’t a lot of activity on Main Street other than the courthouse and the bank and the pharmacy. And so my husband and I both felt kind of draw to that. And at the same time, we’re trying to solve problems with where people stay when they came to visit us and where people eat when they came to visit us. And then I had some goats I was trying to save from my husband wanting to distribute my goats to the Four Winds. And so was trying to figure that out. we always say that our hospitality businesses really started out just problem solving, solving the goats, having a purpose through making goat milk soap, and then solving where people stay in our house by renovating guest houses downtown, and then solving where people eat eventually through creating a restaurant. And so now we have two restaurants, a spa and 23 room in. So we love groups and retreats, things like that. And we have a Kentucky soaps and such where you can shop and buy gift products. So it’s been a lot of fun. We have a great team. Fortunately, I’m the creative and I get to create and then let someone else who’s gifted in management manage, which is the ideal situation. So it’s been a lot of fun.
Rachael Adams (05:51.523)
Yes. Well, everybody’s gonna want to come to Stanford now. And so we’ll be sure to link all of those businesses too that they can come and visit. But we’re gonna take a brief break and then we’re gonna talk more about being Restored in Tuscany.
Rachael Adams (06:11.308)
Welcome back. are with Angela Correll, the author of many books, but today we are talking about Restored in Tuscany. So I imagine Angela, as we’ve just been talking, you are a woman that wears many hats. This is a lot on your plate, a lot to manage and think about, even though it’s such a blessing, I’m sure. and there’s beauty in all, but I imagine it’s a season that may be of exhaustion for you. So tell us maybe how you were feeling before you went.
Angela Correll (06:40.509)
Yes, yeah. So a few years ago, I think all of our downtown businesses, I was really the kind of the linchpin, I would say at that point, as far as vision and design, which I still do. But then even a lot of management, weekly day-to-day management, I was very involved. And I was getting quite tired because I think anytime, I mean, we get tired. Work is a wonderful thing. God gave us work before the fall. So work is a wonderful thing, but what happens, think sometimes is when you’re working outside of your giftedness, there’s just sort of an extra draining that happens. And so I was really outside of my giftedness on multiple aspects of running a small business and small businesses. And so I was very exhausted, very tired, wanted to work on another book and struggled to find the time and the space where I could just be quiet and focus on it. But then my husband suggested, well I actually came to him with the idea of, hey could I just, I just want to go to Italy. We love Italy. Been there many times. It was our honeymoon place. And I said, can I just, I just want to go and stay in one place for two weeks. Which, if anybody knows my husband, he is, wants to see what’s around the next corner. Let’s spend a night here, go here, go there. And so he said, you know, I think that probably is a good idea, but I want you to get to that place in the book first so that your time is productive. And so that really did motivate me. And anyway, that’s kind of how we ended up in Italy. And I found this little village, a little apartment online, and we did go and stay for two weeks. I had the most creative time of my life. I wrote half of a book in two weeks just so inspired, fell in love with the community. And then that started us going to the same place over and over every year until the final thing happened to buying a place. Yeah. Yeah. to kind of back up a second. So the first time we went for two weeks, we loved to travel.
Rachael Adams (08:49.078)
Okay, well that leads me great. Yeah, let’s go straight into that. So tell us about buying this place that you started to restore.
Angela Correll (09:04.084)
I always have in the US, outside the US. And when we were leaving this place after my two weeks of creativity and rest, I just was crying. I never had been to a place I cried when I was leaving. It’s usually at the end of two weeks, you’re ready to go home. And it was kind of a surprise to me. And I just knew there was something that shifted in my soul that I felt like I left a piece of my soul there when we left. And so we kept coming back and then just got the idea. Maybe we would find something small, turnkey, like a condo in a little convent they had in town. And so we started playing with the idea, ran it by some of our advisors, because we thought we don’t want to do anything crazy. this really nuts? But they knew how to restore it to us. And they said, yeah, something simple that’s good. So we thought we were gonna find a place like that. Anyway, long story short, which you can read about in the book, we found a house that needed much more than, and we thought maybe a coat of paint. No, it needed a lot more than that. So we embarked on a year long renovation, but it was a blessing in so many ways and ended up being a soul restoration along the way.
Rachael Adams (10:22.958)
So I’d love to hear more about that. How do you think that that lifestyle and that process of restoring the old villa, that it actually restored your soul, that God had you there for that reason probably all along, right?
Angela Correll (10:33.525)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You know, I think I was primed and ready and I’d already done just sort of some soul work, I would say ahead of that, some forgiveness work, just kind of going through and things. Yeah, I think you get to a point in your life and you just sort of want to make sure about really gone back and these things that maybe happened in childhood or adulthood, have I really truly forgiven? Or is there anyone that I need to ask for forgiveness of? So I kind of had already done some of that work. so I was probably primed and ready. But going through, first of all, I think just the beauty of the place, the history, the pace of life there, the way that they value connection and communication and face-to-face meetings are just some of those things that started me thinking about how I’ve rushed through my life at so many levels and even my father’s advice on his deathbed, who we were cut from the same cloth. And he said to me, slow down, slow down. He was 84 when he died and he said, even when you live a long life, it goes by so fast and I want you to slow down. Well, I didn’t, I tried to listen, but I just didn’t have, there’s just still so much going on inside of me. And so as we went through this restoration, I kind of realized one day I walked in and I saw a pile of rubble in the middle of the house as we were doing the demolition, tearing everything off. And so they were tearing off all this old plaster off the walls and the dust was swirling around. And I remember looking at that and thinking, you know, I feel like I’ve spent most of my life just trying to put new plaster on an old wall and just setting a new goal that was not achievable, setting a new thing. Let me just go for this. Let me get busy with that. And it was just a moment of realizing that I needed to tear everything off first and get down to the very basic structure of who I am in God’s eyes. How does God see me? How does he love me?
Angela Correll (12:49.513)
How does that then impact everything else in my life? And so that was a defining moment as I went through that process. So, and I can’t say I’m still on the journey. So I can’t say, yeah, it was all good. Now I was done. The book ended, I was done. No, it’s still going on. But that was a significant period in my life of really being a catalyst for a lot lot of reconnection with who the Lord had created me to be and how he wanted me to receive the love he had for me.
Rachael Adams (13:21.632)
Gosh, I’m on that journey too. And I can’t wait to continue this conversation, but we’re going to take a brief break and we’re going to talk about more of this spiritual renewal that we all need.
Rachael Adams (13:36.686)
Welcome back everyone. I’m talking with Angela Correll and we’re talking about restoration and healing and rest. So Angela, how did the relationships, both the old and the new, how did that play a role in the healing process? And what does it mean to you now to live in community, whether you’re in Kentucky or in Tuscany?
Angela Correll (13:56.467)
Yes, no, I think that’s a great question. mean, definitely valuing those moments, like even my husband, when he gets up in the morning and he brings me a coffee, yes, I have the best barista boy in the world, he is amazing, but he’ll bring me a coffee. And honestly, the old me would be like, okay, thank you, you know, I gotta get on, I gotta finish this thing and blah, blah. And now it’s like, just want to linger with him. I want him to sit there. I want to linger. And I love my husband. I loved my husband before, but I’m just saying there, it’s just where you get in this fast pace. I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to do this. This needs to get done. And now I just realized that is the thing that needs to done, get done, is sitting there with my husband and lingering over, you know, maybe it’s an hour conversation over coffee or whatever, but even meals, just with friends, just not rushing through things, not trying to cram. We’re going to go and have dinner just so we can go and do this other thing. maybe dinner is the thing. That is the thing. Let’s sit and be together and sit at the table for three hours, which is what you would do in Italy, likely, or two hours, and just be together. Because it’s the lingering moments when the deep heart issues come out. We’re not going to open up if we feel like that person is kind of antsy and looking at their watch and ready to go on to the next thing. And so I feel like that’s what Italy has really taught me is how to savor and linger. And I love those two words. They’re beautiful words. And so those two things, even in Italy, even in Kentucky, just making time margin in my life for that. And if there’s not margin in my life for that, then there’s too much. And so of course, that’s a lesson I have to learn over and over again. And we all have seasons. We have seasons of, you know, you’re running kids here and there and there’s a season for this. There’s a season for that. But at the same time, we are in control over what we accept and what we don’t accept. And so just trying to listen to that voice of what is better in this moment, the Mary Martha challenge that we all think face.
Rachael Adams (16:11.96)
That speaks so much to my heart because I am very task oriented, performance oriented. I love to check things off my to-do list. I love to get it, you know, once I accomplish a goal, I set another goal. And so that’s very much how I’m made. And I think it is a gift, but I’ve also heard that sometimes our weaknesses are just an over-emphasized strength. And I think for me, I can allow it to become a little bit of a weakness because I am just saying yes to every single opportunity and then I end up exhausted. And then I am missing out on those moments, like you just said just recently we went on spring break and it was just my husband and I, my son, will had a baseball tournament and then my daughter didn’t want to watch baseball. So Bryan and I were actually able to have a trip together, just us. And I remember sitting in the chair, just thinking like, well, I feel like I should be doing something right now. And I feel guilty that I’m not doing anything. And I was just struggling to even rest. And so I took a walk, with the Lord and I just felt so clearly him saying just be. Just be with me. You don’t have to do anything. And he’s really just been ministering to my heart. Rachel, there’s value in what you do, but there’s just value in who you are as my daughter and as my child. And so hearing you talk right now, like it’s just confirming that message of my value and worth apart from what I do and to just be with Jesus and just be with the people in our lives to make carve out that time to spend time with them. So talk to me more about that. You mentioned this idea of lingering with people. What does it look like to linger longer with the Lord?
Angela Correll (17:45.905)
Absolutely. That’s why it’s a practice. think it’s a practice. Truly. I think there is a practice in there. just like, you know, Paul says to practice hospitality because you know, you do it over and over again. It’s like a working a mess. So it gets stronger and you get more comfortable with it. and I think the same thing with being with the Lord. One way that I have practiced that is through walking. Cause I love to walk and I love to be in nature. You know, a treadmill is fine in the dead of winter if you can’t do anything else and it’s too yucky outside. there’s something about for me being in nature and walking. I love that time with the Lord. And I’m praying some of that time, but some of the time I’m just being quiet and just listening. And maybe there’s nothing. Maybe it’s just the sound of the birds or whatever, but there’s just, I’m just being, I’m trying to clear my head of the to-do list and just walking and just being with the Lord. I envision myself, I envision Him walking alongside of me as if I’m walking with a friend and He is there and we’re just quiet. know, because a good friend, you have moments where you’re just quiet with each other and that’s comfortable because you’re that close. And so I think that’s sort of what I’ve been practicing lately with the Lord in those lingering moments of being on walks together. Now, obviously I pray other times too, but there’s just something sweet about, another thing I’ve been trying to do is in the car, I tend to want to listen to podcasts or books all the time. And isn’t it wonderful now that we can drive and do two things at once. We love that as Americans. Yeah, exactly. Which is wonderful. And I love that. And so I think that’s such a great way to make use of time in the car, especially when you’re driving kids and you’re in the car a lot.
Rachael Adams (19:28.226)
Yeah, somebody may be listening right now in the car. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Angela Correll (19:40.927)
But it is nice also to turn off the sound. And I try now to get in the car and not just reach for the book or reach for the podcast immediately. I try to just sit for the first, wherever I’m going for the first 10 or 15 minutes and not listen to anything and just be silent, be still, pray, listen, be quiet. And so those are two ways I’ve been practicing that lately. And I’d love maybe somebody else has other ways, but those are two that I’ve been really working on. But I think it is a practice. I don’t think it comes naturally to be quiet and be still.
Rachael Adams (20:17.998)
Especially in our culture today. You know, as you’ve been talking, I’m just being mindful of the woman listening that maybe just feels really weary where she is right now. He may be walking through her own season of grief or renovation. So what words of encouragement would you offer to her today?
Angela Correll (20:36.241)
Yes, think, well, grief in particular, and I think even a renovation, grief is a part of, know, grief comes in so many forms. It doesn’t just necessarily mean that somebody you love has died. It could be a divorce. That’s a form of grief, an unwanted divorce. I mean, that’s a terrible grief in a way, sometimes even worse than if there had been a death. And there’s also the grief of your children becoming, you know, independent and that’s a grief because you’re struggling a bit with your identity. So I think in any, I think first thing I would say is recognize that grief does come in many forms and there may be something you’re dealing with that you hadn’t even realized was a grief. And so first of all, embrace it and realize it is what it is and it is a grief and you need to give it space and room and you need to give yourself, I always say with grief you need space and grace. And so you need to give yourself grace to not perform at whatever level you think you should be performing at. You need to give yourself space to lean into it and ask God to speak and teach you what he wants to teach you through those moments. And so I think, you know, again, in our culture, we just tend to give it, you know, give grief a week or two, like, yeah, well, I’m over it. I’ll be okay. Now you really may, may not be over it and you may need to give it more time and it’s different for everybody. And so I think that just would be the biggest thing is just thinking about grace and space, even renovation project in your soul or, or some type of grief.
Rachael Adams (22:19.736)
That’s a good word. you actually, speaking of being busy, we’re talking about all the things that you’re doing. You have another book that is coming out this fall. And so this one offers just more glimpses into your everyday life in Tuscany. So can you give us maybe a sneak peek into what we can expect and what you hope they’ll take away from it?
Angela Correll (22:40.693)
Sure, so restored in Tuscany, the memoir really is my story, kind of what Italy, how I went through some painful season and restoration season. And then Village Life picks up a bit of, it’s less about the soul restoration and more about all the observations of Italian village life. I think the full title is called Village Life. Gosh. This is terrible. Something about intentional hospitality, Tuscan inspired hospitality and intentional living is the subtitle. And so it’s really about all those things that make village life special in Tuscany and in Italy in general. What are the things we can learn from the walking to the cooking to the food to the afternoon rest, Sabbath, observing the Sabbath, all these things that can we can take home and you don’t have to go to Italy. You can read the book. It’s got beautiful photography. It’s got recipes in it after every chapter and it’s got little ways to bring Italy home from a certain movie to watch or a book to read or some music to listen to. So there are just some fun things in this book and I think it’s such a fun book because you don’t have to sit down and read it cover to cover. You can literally just take a bit, do a chapter. Do a chapter next week. I mean, it’s literally one of those books you can pick up and put down over and over again. So I’m really excited about it coming out. And it releases September the 9th, and it’s available now on pre-order if anybody wants to go ahead and get ahead of it. I think you get a little bit early if you do that.
Rachael Adams (24:17.229)
Yeah. Well, and I want everybody to know listening, they’re beautiful. They’re just like the photography and the colors and the print. Everything is just, it’s almost like a table, a tabletop coffee book. They’re gorgeous. Yeah.
Angela Correll (24:28.306)
It is, it is. That’s what they call it, a coffee table. It’s just not a big, it’s not a big book. It’s like a bookshelf book.
Rachael Adams (24:34.274)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, but they’re beautiful. They’re beautiful. So this season I’ve been asking all of my guests, there a biblical concept of love that you think applies to this topic today?
Angela Correll (24:46.205)
Yes, I think redemption, truly. I mean, that is to me the ultimate gift that God gave us through His Son. And I feel like in this story in particular, it’s redemption of a house, but it’s also this whole soul restoration. I mean, I’ve been redeemed, but it’s just a continuation of that and the sanctification. So I think that would be the one that really applies to this book.
Rachael Adams (25:15.246)
Absolutely. Well, so tell us something that you are loving right now.
Angela Correll (25:20.129)
I’m loving my new book project. I mean, my reading project. I am going back and reading the Pulitzer Prize winning novels from starting in 1918. And so I’m going on number five or six. I’m just giving myself plenty of time. I’m not racing through it. I’m just enjoying it as I’m ready to enjoy it. So it’s been so fun to go back and read novels from a hundred years ago and see how they actually apply to today because humans haven’t changed.
Rachael Adams (25:48.686)
Yeah. Yes. What a fun project to do and just to inspire your own writing and to linger a little bit and just do something that you enjoy. Yes. Yeah. Oh, that’s a great idea. I might have to steal that idea. That’s really fun. Yeah. Okay. So I’m going to include everything that you’ve talked about in the show notes. I know I want to stay connected with you. I’m sure listeners are going to want to. So tell us how we can best do that.
Angela Correll (26:19.497)
Well, you can follow me on Facebook or Instagram, and I’m getting ready to work on my Pinterest site as well, especially with this new book coming out. So it’s gonna be a bit under construction. And then I have a website, and it’s just my name, angelacorrell.com. So I’d love to hear from you. You can email me from there, and yeah, just love to stay in touch.
Rachael Adams (26:45.326)
Yeah, and go visit her in Stanford at her bookstore. When she’s not in, or maybe we can come to Tuscany. I don’t know, or both. Yes. Yeah, I’ve actually never been, so in college I studied abroad in London, England, and then I got to visit Italy, but I’ve never been to Tuscany. So yeah, bucket list. Bucket list, yes.
Angela Correll (26:47.827)
Yes, that would be great. I’d love to see people driven. Yeah, no, I like it. think, I think we need to lead a retreat and then we’ll, we’ll just have it right there in the village. Girl, we have to solve that one. Yeah.
Rachael Adams (27:14.408)
Well, I’m just so thankful for this conversation has been encouraging to me and I pray it’s encouraging to everybody that’s tuned in. So Angela, would you pray for us as we close today?
Angela Correll (27:23.717)
Yes, I would love to. Our dear Father God, I just want to lift up all the listeners out there right now, whether they’re at home cooking dinner or in a car or maybe even at work or at lunch hour, whatever, and wherever they are, whatever they’re doing. I just pray that you would just bless them and give them the words that whatever it is that you want them to hear. And just to know that they’re loved and they are treasured and they are just deeply, deeply cared for. And I just pray that they would hear that message and I hope that if they are going through grief that they would truly give themselves a grace in the space to hear any lessons or any just love that you have for them during this time as they go through heart changes and we just ask all this Lord in your name. And I also pray for Rachel that you would just continue to bless her ministry and her outreach and just magnify that so that more hearts can be touched. And we thank you for all these wonderful things that you have given us, not only through your son, but just all the principles and the teachings Lord in your name, amen.
Rachael Adams (28:42.859)
Amen. Thank you so much, Angela.
Angela Correll (28:45.545)
Thank you, it’s such a pleasure to be here.
Rachael Adams (28:49.56)
Thank you so much for listening to the Love Offering Podcast. I hope today’s conversation with Angela Correll encouraged you and inspired you to love God, love others, and even love yourself a little more. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and leave a review. It helps others to find the show and spreads the message of love even further.
To connect with me, visit rachaelkadams.com. While you’re there, download the Love Offering Calendar, a free resource with daily ways to love those around you. Don’t forget to pick up a copy of my new book, Everyday Prayers for Love, as well as Angela’s newest release, Restored in Tuscany, available wherever books are sold. A big thank you to Life Audio for supporting this podcast. You can find more inspiring shows at lifeaudio.com. Thanks again for joining us today. Until next time, let’s make our lives an offering of love.
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