Want to host a Wellness Retreat in Sicily? – There is a particular kind of magic that happens when a group of people leaves behind their usual surroundings and comes together in a place where there is enough space to breathe, enough quiet to think and enough time simply to be together. A retreat is never only about the teaching itself. The accommodation, the food, the landscape, the conversations around the table, the moments between sessions and even the personality of the place where people stay all become part of the experience. So, if you are a retreat leader wondering where you can host a small wellness retreat in Sicily, the answer is not simply a question of finding somewhere with enough beds and a room in which to hold your sessions. It is about finding somewhere that can become part of the retreat itself.
At Vista Alcantara Mountain Wellness Retreat, we have just had the pleasure of hosting an international breathwork retreat, and as I write this, I am still slightly amazed at how much happened in just a few days. Eight participants travelled from the United States, Germany and Switzerland to spend time together in the mountains of Sicily, taking part in a four-day breathwork retreat led by breathwork teacher Jeurg Roffler. Some guests arrived a day early and some stayed on beyond the formal retreat programme, which meant that the experience extended well beyond the four teaching days. For us at Vista Alcantara, it was also particularly meaningful because this was the second retreat we have hosted for the same organiser.
For several days I was awake and working from around seven in the morning until approximately ten-thirty at night, preparing breakfast, lunch, afternoon snacks and dinner, keeping everything organised, cleaning, looking after the guests, making sure the practical details were taken care of and doing all the little things that inevitably arise when a group of people is living together in one place. It was hard work, without question, but it was also enormously rewarding. One of the unexpected pleasures was discovering just how much the guests enjoyed the food. The meals prepared here were a mixture of fresh, homemade pescetarian and vegetarian dishes, using the kind of food that feels appropriate for a retreat: colourful salads, vegetables, soups, homemade savoury dishes, dips, desserts, fresh fruit and fish meals designed to nourish and support the physical, mental and emotional work being done at the breathwork retreat.
Food is often underestimated when people think about organising a retreat. The teaching may be the heart of the programme, but participants still have to eat three times a day, and what they eat contributes to how they experience the entire retreat. There is something very different about sitting down together at a long outdoor table and being served a meal prepared with care than there is about sending everyone off to a restaurant each evening. Meals become part of the social aspect of the retreat. Unless they are in silence, people talk about what they have experienced during the day, they laugh, they get to know one another and sometimes conversations continue long after the plates have been cleared.
That is one of the reasons why the setting matters so much. Vista Alcantara is not a conventional conference hotel or a large commercial resort, and we have never pretended that it is. It is a very rural mountain retreat surrounded by nature, with olive trees, fruit trees, open countryside and expansive views across the Alcantara Valley towards Mount Etna. It is peaceful and private, and there is a sense of being removed from the constant movement and noise of everyday life. For a retreat that involves inner work, breathwork, meditation, yoga or other forms of personal exploration, that environment can make a considerable difference to the overall atmosphere.
There is also something about being in Sicily that naturally encourages people to slow down. Life here has its own rhythm. The landscape is dramatic without needing to be manufactured for tourists, the villages and countryside have their own character and the mountains create a sense of space that is difficult to reproduce in an urban environment. From Vista Alcantara, the Alcantara Valley stretches out below the property, while Mount Etna forms a magnificent presence in the wider landscape. Depending on the weather and the season, the views change constantly, and sometimes the simplest experience is to sit outside and watch the light move across the mountains.
For retreat organisers, however, choosing a venue involves much more than finding a beautiful view. The practical side matters enormously. You need somewhere that can accommodate your participants comfortably, somewhere where meals can be provided, somewhere with spaces suitable for your work and somewhere where your group can spend time together without feeling as though they are constantly disturbing other hotel guests. You also need a host who understands that a retreat is different from an ordinary holiday booking. Participants may have particular dietary requirements, the timetable may be unusual, sessions may begin early or finish later than a conventional hotel schedule and the group may need flexibility around the programme.
This is where a smaller retreat venue can offer something different from a large hotel. At Vista Alcantara, the atmosphere is personal. Guests are not anonymous people passing through a reception desk. They become part of the household for the duration of their stay, and that means that hospitality can be much more human and feel almost like being at home. Sometimes it means preparing a meal. Sometimes it means making tea. Sometimes it means answering a question about the local area, helping someone find something they need or simply sitting down for a conversation. And sometimes, apparently, it means picking up a microphone and singing for everyone on the farewell evening.
Yes, that happened too.
After several days of breathwork and teaching, the evening before the final teachings was our opportunity to celebrate together. I put aside my cooking and hosting duties for a while, picked up a microphone and gave the group a little live performance. With music, lights and everyone together, the atmosphere changed completely. There was laughter, singing and celebration, and it was a lovely reminder that wellness is not always about silence and seriousness. Rest, reflection and inner work are important, but so are joy, connection, playfulness and having a good time with other human beings.
That balance is something I believe matters enormously in a retreat. People may come because they want to work on themselves, learn something new, explore breathwork, practise yoga or simply step away from their normal lives for a while, but they do not stop being human when the session ends. They still want to eat good food, laugh, talk, listen to music, enjoy the sunshine and perhaps discover something about the country they have travelled to visit. A retreat does not have to separate wellness from pleasure. In many ways, the two can complement one another beautifully.
The breathwork retreat we have just hosted was led by Jeurg Roffler, whose work is associated with the Middendorf approach to breathing.
It was a pleasure to have Jeurg and his group back at Vista Alcantara, and I would particularly like to thank him for choosing the retreat for a second time. When an organiser returns with a larger group, it means a great deal to us. It tells us that the first experience was sufficiently positive for the organiser to trust the venue again, and that trust is something we value enormously. Organising a retreat involves a considerable amount of responsibility for the person leading it. They are not simply booking accommodation for themselves; they are asking a group of people to travel, sometimes internationally, and place their experience in their hands. The venue therefore becomes part of the organiser’s responsibility, and choosing somewhere that works well can make the entire process considerably easier.
This year, the international nature of the group made the experience particularly special. Eleven people from different countries and backgrounds came together in the mountains of Sicily, and gradually a group of individuals became a group of people sharing meals, conversations, experiences and laughter. That is one of the things I love most about hosting retreats. You never quite know what will happen when people arrive as strangers. By the time they leave, they may have developed friendships, shared stories, discovered unexpected similarities or simply created memories that remain with them long after they return home.
The photographs taken by one of the participants capture that aspect of the retreat particularly well. There are photographs of the food, of the outdoor dining area, of people sitting together, of conversations taking place outside and of the group laughing together. One photograph, taken from below as everyone gathered around the camera, shows a circle of smiling faces looking down and laughing. It is one of those photographs that could never really be recreated by a professional photographer because its value lies in the fact that it happened naturally. Another shows the group sitting around the outdoor table beneath the grape-covered pergola, eating together in the sunshine. There is nothing artificial about these photographs. They show people actually enjoying being together.
There are also photographs of the food, which I have to admit make me rather proud. When I decided to cater for eleven people myself, I knew it was going to be a considerable undertaking, but I also wanted the meals to feel like part of the experience rather than simply fuel between sessions. The dishes were prepared with fresh ingredients and presented with care, and the response from the guests was wonderful. I came away from the experience with a rather amusing new realisation: apparently I can add retreat chef to my list of abilities. After everything I have done in my life, I wasn’t entirely sure that was going to be the discovery of this particular week, but there we are.
For a retreat organiser considering Sicily, this is perhaps one of the most important things to understand about Vista Alcantara. The venue is not about polished corporate retreat infrastructure or the anonymity of a large hotel. It is about creating an environment where a small group can feel genuinely welcomed. There is a difference between staying somewhere and feeling that you have been received somewhere. The latter is much harder to manufacture, and it is something we try to preserve.
That does not mean Vista Alcantara is for everyone. It is a rural mountain property, and the experience is connected to nature, countryside and the realities of being away from a busy tourist centre. It is not a five-star luxury resort, and I would never want to present it as one. What it offers is a different kind of luxury: space, quiet, clean mountain air, privacy, beautiful surroundings, comfortable accommodation, nourishing food and the warmth of being personally welcomed. For the right retreat, those things can be much more important than marble floors and a large hotel lobby.
The location also makes Vista Alcantara an interesting base for retreat groups who want their participants to experience something of eastern Sicily rather than spending their entire stay inside a resort. The Alcantara Valley, the Alcantara Gorges, Mount Etna and Taormina are all part of the wider landscape and can provide opportunities for guests to experience the region before or after the formal retreat programme. At the same time, when participants return to Vista Alcantara, they return to somewhere considerably quieter than the major tourist centres.
A retreat venue should therefore be judged not only by what it provides during the scheduled sessions but by what happens in the hours around them. Where do people have breakfast? Where do they sit afterwards? Can they walk outside and be surrounded by nature? Can they look at the mountains? Can they have a conversation without background noise? Can they share a meal together? Can they simply sit quietly when they need to? These details may sound small, but collectively they shape the emotional atmosphere of a retreat.
To Mr Jeurg Roffler, thank you for trusting Vista Alcantara with your retreat for a second time, and thank you for bringing such a lovely group of people back to us. To everyone who travelled from the United States, Germany and Switzerland, thank you for your warmth, your humour, your kindness and for making the house feel alive for those few days. It was a genuine pleasure to cook for you, look after you, share the mountain with you and, of course, sing for you. I hope that when you think back on your time in Sicily, you remember not only the breathwork and the teachings but also the meals under the pergola, the laughter around the table, the mountain air, the views, the conversations and perhaps a little piece of Sicily sitting on your fridge at home.
For anyone searching for somewhere to host a small wellness retreat in Sicily, perhaps that is ultimately the most important question to ask. Do you want simply to hire a venue, or do you want to create an experience in which the place itself becomes part of the retreat?
At Vista Alcantara Mountain Wellness Retreat, we believe that the most memorable retreats happen when the teaching, the environment, the food, the people and the hospitality come together naturally. A retreat is not confined to the hours written on the programme. It continues over breakfast, during a walk, around the dinner table, while watching the sunset, during an unexpected conversation and, occasionally, when the retreat host picks up a microphone and turns the farewell evening into a little Sicilian concert.
This week’s retreat has left me exhausted, certainly, but also very happy and incredibly grateful. It reminded me why I created, (and am still creating,) Vista Alcantara: not simply to provide somewhere for people to sleep, but to create a place where people can come together, slow down, experience something meaningful and perhaps leave with a little more of themselves than they arrived with.
If another retreat organiser is looking for a small, peaceful and personal retreat venue in Sicily, our doors are open.
Thank you, Jeurg, and thank you to every one of you who shared these beautiful days with us. We hope to see you again.
Read about the first retreat:
Breathwork Retreat at Vista Alcantara in Sicily
More articles:
What Is Slow Travel, and Why Is Sicily the Perfect Place to Experience It?
Digital Detox Sicily: Where to Truly Disconnect and Reconnect with Nature