Welcome to Italy Retreats — Formerly Sogni Italiani

This page is not only about me sharing useful travel information with you. It is also about my passion for Italy. On my first day there, in March of 1984, I felt more at home than I had ever felt in my life.

I returned to Florence the next year to go to school and to learn the language. I continued during my twenties to travel around Europe, the Soviet Union, and Asia, but the yearning in my soul for Italy never left me.

I lived again in Florence in 2003/04 and most recently I walked by myself for a month on a pilgrimage in Italy which I decided to undertake after going through a divorce and serious illness at the same time. Italy is where I chose to go to heal. I am now offering to others an opportunity to find healing, nurturing, sustenance, and renewed strength in the rich, colorful, ancient, tapestry that is Italy.

Come to me with your pre-made group of family, friends, alumni, and I’ll design a tailor made retreat for your group. Here are some I suggest:

A culinary retreat that celebrates Tuscany in off season with its olive harvest, porcini mushrooms brought fresh from the woods, wine harvest festivals, cooking classes, and the thrill of the truffle hunt! You will love the slow rhythms, the depth of flavors and the celebrations of the food products that make off-season Tuscany a true Feast. 

Painting & photography in Sicily! How about the off-the-beaten-path small island archipelagos off Sicily’s coasts? The Aeolian or Egadi islands will take you back to the Greek myths–secret places where wild thyme blows, and Sirens lured Odysseus. Explore your creativity while being inspired by an ancient land full of Mediterranean blues and whites with bursts of magenta bougainvillea.