The 3-week Autumn Retreat

Friday 8th to Saturday 30th November

(first day and last day for arrival and departure)

We will be returning to where we held the Spring Retreat with Xie Chuan~

Marettimo - one of the three Egadi islands connected to the city of Trapani on mainland Sicily by frequent ferry and ship services.

Marettimo as a place of retreat is quite ideal. This is a mountainous island with one port where the fishing community lives. In this paese, a couple of cafes which stay open all year round would prepare a meal for us when requested. There is a bakery run by two brothers and their wives, we get our bread and Sicilian goodies there and Saturday nights we can place individual orders for pizza.

For our daily supplies, there is a little supermarket + a once-a-week fresh produce market with vans coming over from Trapani and Marsala; a pharmacy; post office, cash-point. For fish, you go down to where the fishing boats are coming in.

We will be staying at Marettimo Residence, the only hotel on the island. It offers attractive and spacious single and shared accommodation with all facilities. Please note we will be taking care of our own meals; on the accommodations page you will see that each unit has a kitchen/kitchenette. Cooking and eating time will be for rest and assimilation of our daily practice during the retreat.

Our dojo - the 'sala' - is a wooden pavilion in the hillside garden of Marettimo Residence. The mountain is our backbone, the sea, islands and the bulk of the Sicilian mainland an embrace as we stand in ZhanZhuang, and while we are in moving qigong. We will also have the use of a smaller more intimate space for the seated meditations.

You will see that Trapani and Marettimo are easy to reach. This Autumn 2024 will be our 7th retreat on Marettimo, where friends from Iceland, the British Isles and continental Europe have gathered : they appreciate the Marettimari and their simple yet elegant island on the edge of Europe.

The main airport on Sicily is Palermo PMO. We have at hand all the information for onward connections to Marettimo. If you arrive in the morning at Palermo, you can be on Marettimo for tea.