The story behind Cielo

In Spring of 2022, I was about to start the first year of my graduate studies in accounting.

I had a gut feeling I had to go on a trip, or rather flee the country, before the long study sessions.

I opened up the Airbnb app, typed in Italy, and the first bed and breakfast that popped up showed pictures of a dog sitting in a bed of flowers, a woman painting, someone reading on a chair, and a young man bathing in the river.

I did not know where it was in Italy, but I had to go. I couldn’t believe it was real. It was calling my name.

A few years before #solo travelling was a trend, I went by myself. Even though I had never done anything alone, let alone sleep in the house by myself without keeping one eye open.

Somehow, I made it to Italy with my passport and somehow someone rented me a car, and off I was to and through the region of Chianti, Tuscany. That place was called Il Cielo. A one room bed-and-breakfast. The owner, Michèle, a German Swiss woman, that was around the same age as my mom, cooked organic breakfast she made from scratch and offered Reiki massages. Her and her partner, now husband, Fabrizio, had built from a pile of bricks this heavenly house hugged by the mountains.

 She inquired about my studies and my work, and we talked switching from French to English.

While on that trip something profound changed in me. I was experiencing dolce far niente (the art of doing nothing) driving around the Chianti region among the olive trees, eating gelato, and writing.

I think Michèle felt bad for me being in one of the most romantic places in the world by myself and invited me for dinner with old friends from Sicily.

She planted various seeds in my mind regarding the American way of living and Buddhism. Through my long days of flânage, worrying Michèle coming back at unpredictable hours, Italian lessons, and her assuming the role of mother until my departure, we built a friendship.

Since then, I have visited Chianti, and Il Cielo, four times. Michèle and Fabrizio got married on the same day as my birthday, to which I was invited to (and even made it in the wedding video) in 2024.

I’ve met many other amazing women who all planted different seeds in my mind over time, but Michèle was one of the first ones on this travelling journey of mine.

Women in India, Japan, Canada, Italy, Costa Rica, France from Australia, Switzerland, South Africa, and more.

At the intersection of this web of social capital, conversations, Yoga, holistic health, travel, was a network of women. The idea of women’s retreat was born. Yoga, but also sports. Art and creation. Womanhood, sisterhood. And that is where the idea of Cielo Retreats bloomed over time. And what a beautiful legacy to name it after that little b&b in the forest of Italy. Cielo Retreats.