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Cultivating Contentment

Duende Retreat

Italian Alps 

August 8-14, 2020

 Spend your summer vacation on a true retreat for the mind and body. 

 

For five days and six nights, nourish your mind, body and soul in the stunning Italian Alps.  During this retreat, you will have the time and space to 'touch the depths of your own wisdom,' maximizing your creativity, clarity and compassion.  This supportive environment offers both solitude and companionship and is perfect for those beginning a meditation practice and for experienced practitioners.

Writing Tuscany

Duende Retreat

Tuscany, Italy 

October 11-17, 2020

Spend five days and six nights, 'writing Tuscany' at the magical, inspirational Ca di Pesa.  This ancient Tuscan 'borgo,' beautifully tucked away amid olive groves and orchards, was once the residence of the storied Gherardini family of Florence, home to none other than Mona Lisa, subject of what is possibly the most famous painting in the world.   

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Designed to be a week of sacred writing space, on this retreat you can dedicate yourself fully to your work, without external demands or distractions, with the support and camaraderie of other steadfast writers. 

Past Retreats 

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Find Your Flow​

Duende Retreat

Lapland, Finland 2019

For five days and four, long magical nights we cozied up in the sacred heart of winter. Soothed by Mother Earth as she rested through her dormant months, we were tucked away in the quiet cold of the Arctic, allowing ourselves to be enveloped by the mysteries of darkness and dancing light.​

Find Your Flow

Magic Marrakech

Wide Open Writing Retreat

Morocco, 2018

For six days and five nights we stayed in a hidden gem of a riad in the middle of Marrakech's Medina, the perfect place to dream, write and be enchanted by the call of the muezzin.  We went to the famous Storytelling Cafe, toured the city with a guide and tried our hand at making a typical Marrakchi meal at a cooking class held at the stunning Maison Arabe.   

Marrakech

Pantelleria, Italy

Wide Open Writing Retreat

Pantelleria, Italy 2018

For a week, we did yoga, ate locally prepared meals and engaged the muse on the remote, sometimes very windy island of Pantelleria where the horizon is always eye-level.

Pantelleria

Isla Holbox, Mexico

Wide Open Writing Retreat

Isla Holbox, Mexico 2018

For six days and five nights we wrote in the breeze on a porch overlooking the shallow, turquoise waters of the Caribbean sea.  We woke up to coffee and yoga, ate delicious, freshly made Mexican fare and were taken with each others' words.  

Holbox

Tubac, Arizona

Wide Open Writing Retreat

Tubac, Arizona 2016

For six days and five nights we stayed on a hacienda ranch, scribbled to the tune of howling coyotes, scratching javelinas and the rest of the wild west.  We participated in Tucson's annual Day of the Dead procession, practicing our writing as well as letting go.

Tubac

Tuscany, Italy

Wide Open Writing Retreat

2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018

Always a favorite, this was the location where Wide Open Writing hosted its first retreat.  It's a week of writing, wandering the hills and working up a sweat, cooling down afterwards with a swim, jaunting off on a horseback ride, all while soaking up the Tuscan countryside on a family-owned farmhouse.  This is a place I've been going to for over thirteen years.  Between taking students during their semester abroad and with five groups of writing retreats, I estimate I've brought well over1000 people to enjoy these unforgettable, soul-quenching views! 

Tuscany WOW
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