You can’t go wrong ANYWHERE in Italy! Yet after many years of traveling throughout the country and a month-long scouting trip, I’ve chosen Orvieto as the IDEAL location for you!

First, Orvieto is the global capital city of the Citta Slow culture. Get ready to immerse yourself in the best of every aspect of slow, quality living in modern day Italy. Almost no vehicles enter the city center, which is alive with a passion for excellence in the arts, food, culture and just good, quality, savored living. Second, it’s here that I’ve connected with a community of WONDERFUL like-hearted people who have been standing by ready and waiting to meet you. It’s time to come home to your Self and Orvieto’s arms are wide open!

We’ll be spending five fabulous nights in this beautiful, strollable Medieval jewel of a city, just north of Rome, exploring every nook and cranny, down winding cobblestone mazes, around its stunning cliff-side edges, discovering treasures that delight every sense. And that’s not all. We’re going underground!

The city’s much older, second story beneath the earth — an astounding labyrinth of grottos, caves and wells 2,500 years in the making and formerly hidden in the silent darkness of the rupe (rock) — is the perfect experiential catalyst for the transformational inner work we’ll be doing together!

Beyond Orvieto — Feel connected, nourished and in the pure joy of life again! 

We’ll venture out into the glorious Italian countryside, “Il cuore verde d'Italia” or “The green heart of Italy”. Our destination — the ancient village of Pettino, surrounded by truffle-rich forests, and where we will experience a phenomenal truffle hunt with a local family and their pups. Our wonderful hosts have mastered this trade through hundreds of years of family practice and devotion. We’ll taste copious amounts of our fresh truffle treasures along with the family’s very own pecorino cheese and wine, sought out from across Italy. Together we’ll savor a hearty and unforgettable, farm-to-table traditional Umbrian meal with our truffle hunters and their family, experiencing each other, their hospitality and beautiful way of life.

Each night you’ll rest and recharge in the historic-artistic beauty of the Hotel Palazzo Piccolomini, Orvieto’s best hotel, located in the oldest and quietest part of town. You’ll delight that you are sleeping where nobility and popes have slept, as this Palazzo once belonged to the Papal family Piccolomini from the end of the 15th century until the death of the Countess Cristina Piccolomini in 1905. Its grand halls, stone arches etched with artistic detail, original frescos, all make this place unique. Each well-appointed room is one-of-a-kind. A delicious breakfast is served underground amidst exposed Etruscan stone walls.

Every meal you eat is an unforgettably divine explosion of mouth-watering homemade local food and flavors using the freshest ingredients. Imagine tasting the perfect pappardelle simply adorned with finest local olive oil and truffles—along the most wonderful antipasti platters of prosciutto, grana padano (the local hard cheese), olives, fresh basil with warm fresh-baked crispy-chewy Italian bread.

Or perhaps as we gather together for one of our many relaxing alfresco dinners, this one at my favorite family-run Enoteca al Duomo. You sample the house specialties, tasting nonna’s to-die-for lasagna, or the delicate-as-silk handkerchiefs of ravioli oozing with Robiola cheese, balanced with rich and buttery wild mushrooms.

While most of our meals will be together out on the town, you will have several opportunities to go off and explore on your own and find what regional morsels pleasure your pallet. Did I mention the desserts and the gelato? Oh my. Give yourself many opportunities to taste test the creative flavors of local “artigianali” delights served both at Gelateria Pasqualetti and L’Officina del Gelato.

 This journey is for you if

• you are willing to experience yourself in a safe, experiential environment while immersing in what is uniquely and wonderfully Italy.

• you are longing to discover a way to connect and experience more joy and aliveness in your day-to-day life and bring more fulfillment to your work, relationships, commitments and everything you do.

• you are ready to work through and release any ‘small self’ patterns, judgments and beliefs that have stood in the way in the past so that you can create a life you love!

• you are willing to be uncomfortable in service to stretching into something even bigger and more meaningful for you.

• you are willing to laugh it up, cry it out, soak it up, get a little messy in service to letting go, coming alive and loving yourself and your life!

This journey is NOT for you if

• you have a fixed mindset and you’re unwilling to learn and grow.

• you want to hang out where it’s comfortable, safe, proven territory . . . or just hang out in Italy.

• you are unwilling to accept and respect the experience of everyone in the group and recognize that group success is the path to your own success.

• you are unwilling to have fun.

I’m a coach, facilitator and creative devoted to helping highly successful people access their authentic leadership so they can create greater success in their professional and personal lives. I absolutely love what I do and who I need to be to make a meaningful difference for my clients.

I lead retreats because they are an immediate way to get out of your routine, slow down, connect, renew and grow. You experience yourself, others and the gifts of an incredible destination – with transformational and meaningful impact on your life back home.

As early as I can remember, I’ve had a deep calling to travel and explore. My work has taken me to places like Prague, Lithuania, Singapore, Sydney, Milan, Dublin and Paris. I’ve always added on weeks to immerse and connect. I slow down and I am ‘all in’, creating unique experiences and relationships — months in France, Italy, Czech Republic, South East Asia. And when I find a destination I just love, I take an intimate, selected group of sojourners there to experience the collaboration of high-level, life-changing coaching and heart-opening, life-affirming travel.

Before I became a coach and led retreats, for 12 years I made movies and television in the US and abroad. I learned to lead pioneering partnerships, drive unlikely results, and lead inspired, creative projects to fruition.

At age 23, briefly after The Velvet Revolution, I led casts and crews in Prague and Lithuania, negotiated contracts in Munich, Budapest and the UK. I garnered powerful real-world learning — delivering high-level results on demanding projects that required not only knowing my business, but also developing relationships with network executives, talent, crews and local community members. I respected and navigated different cultures and learned to stretch, strategize and get wildly creative to get things done. It was a time of learning, adventure and possibility.

I had a solid producing career, a great community, and a ‘full’ life in Beverly Hills. I was grateful, yet I yearned for a deeper connection to my Self, my purpose, and to be in greater service.

I delved into a progressive, experiential graduate program in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica where I became aware of the many limiting beliefs I held about myself and others and how these judgments shaped my outlook and my experiences. I began to take full responsibility for my life as I explored the possibility that all of my experiences were for me – for my own learning, growth and upliftment. I realized my innate wholeness and value was immutable and began to transform my relationship with myself and others.

After I earned a Masters in Spiritual Psychology, trained in Dale Carnegie Principle,. and attained my certification as a Soul-Centered Professional Coach, I got my own incredible coach. I got into action creating a rich and meaningful life and career that I love — that’s aligned with my heart and purpose.