Renewal Retreats in Italy

Immersive experiences in Florence for anyone longing to slow down, reflect, and re-enter their own life more fully.

A retreat isn’t an escape; it’s an arrival.

These retreats draw from the same understanding that shaped the Italian masters: that nature, spirit, and creativity are never separate, that the inner life and the outer world are always in conversation, and that slowing down is not a luxury but a necessary act of return.

Whether you’re standing in front of a Botticelli in the Uffizi or walking a quiet Tuscan path at dawn, the invitation is the same. Come back to yourself.

This is not executive restoration or creative optimization. It’s something quieter and more essential than that. It’s the work of remembering who you are when the noise falls away.

What these retreats are built on

One saw the divine in the mathematics of the human body and the flight of a bird. The other saw it in the brotherhood of the sun and the soil. Both Leonardo da Vinci and St. Francis of Assisi understood a fundamental truth: nothing exists in isolation. Creativity, presence, and connection to the living world are woven together in a single architecture of life. These retreats are built on that same understanding, held inside the city that shaped them both.

Presence before productivity.

We create a genuine container for slowing down, one where clarity and insight can emerge without being forced.

Italy as a living teacher.

Florence’s art, architecture, sacred sites, and landscapes are not backdrop. They are the curriculum.

Small groups, real depth.

Every retreat is capped at 8-12 participants. Intimacy is not incidental to the experience. It’s what makes it possible.

Three Paths. One Invitation.

The Way of Da Vinci

A 7-day creative immersion in Florence for anyone who wants to learn to see again. Drawing on Da Vinci’s practice of radical observation, we use photography, drawing, and deep looking as contemplative tools, not to produce art but to recover the quality of attention that makes a full life possible.

Florence, Italy | 7 days | 8-12 participants

Discover The Way of Da Vinci

The Way of St. Francis

A 7-day contemplative retreat in Florence and the Tuscan countryside, for anyone seeking stillness, simplicity, and the particular kind of clarity that comes from slowing all the way down. Guided by the Franciscan tradition and the interior wisdom of St. Teresa’s Interior Castle, this retreat moves through sacred sites, contemplative walks, and honest reflection in one of the most spiritually resonant landscapes in the world.

Florence and Tuscany, Italy | 7 days | 8-12 participants

Discover The Way of St. Francis

Coming in 2027: A Writer’s Retreat

A contemplative writing retreat for anyone who uses the page, or wants to, as a way of making sense of the world. Not a craft workshop. A space for writing as practice, as excavation, as a way of finding out what you actually think and feel and know. Details and the guiding figure are still taking shape. Join the waitlist to be notified when it opens.

Join the waitlist

FAQ: The Retreat Experience

When your inner pace no longer matches the pace of your life. When the things that used to restore you have stopped working. When you’re living from obligation rather than anything that feels like yours. When you can’t remember the last time you were genuinely quiet. These retreats are designed for exactly that moment.

When it’s designed for genuine depth rather than escape, yes. Not because something dramatic happens, but because slowing all the way down in a place of real beauty, with a small group of people doing the same thing, creates the conditions for something to shift. Most people return home not with answers but with a clearer sense of the right questions.

Don’t overschedule yourself, perform for others, or try to optimize the experience. A retreat is not a productivity intervention. The work is to slow down, listen, and let the noise fall away. Leave urgency at the door. Bring presence instead.

Gentle. Most days involve walking, time outdoors, and contemplative movement at a pace that allows for noticing rather than arriving. You don’t need to be an athlete. You need to be comfortable with slowness.

No. Whether you paint on a canvas or build an organization or raise children or tend a garden, you are already in the practice of bringing something into the world. These retreats are for anyone longing to reconnect with that impulse at a deeper level, not just artists or writers.

Every retreat is capped at 8-12 participants. That’s not a marketing line. It’s what makes the depth of the experience possible.

Full details are shared in the retreat prospectus, which you’ll receive when you join the waitlist. Investment details are confirmed with each participant individually, as they vary based on accommodation preferences and retreat format.

Spiritually grounded but not religious. The work draws from contemplative traditions, place-based wisdom, and the particular quality of attention that sacred spaces in Italy make available. People of all belief systems, and none, are welcome. What’s required is not belief but a genuine willingness to slow down and pay attention.

Join the Waitlist

These retreats aren’t standard getaways. They’re invitations to return to something. If something on this page has called to you, that’s usually enough of a reason to put your name down. Joining the waitlist is simply an expression of interest, not a commitment. You’ll receive the 2026 Retreat Prospectus and early access to registration when dates are confirmed.