Root Up
April 12 to 19, 2027 | Tuscany
A retreat to fall in love with all of life
A retreat inspired by forests, rivers and stars, in the Arezzo region of Tuscany, from the heart of the mystical Casentino Forest to the golden city of Florence.
I have created Root Up as an immersive retreat in nature and a living frequency container to nurture your connection to trueSelf. Here we ground that connection by learning from the living intelligence of forest ecosystems and from the harmonic beauty of the Renaissance, and discover through direct experience how we thrive and how we create.
We spend time in the ancient Casentino Forest, a 764-hectare core sanctuary preserved without human involvement for 67 years and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We move close to the edge of this ancient world and we listen. After our immersion with the forest, we visit Florence, the magnificent city where the masters of the Italian Renaissance brought harmonic geometry into form in architecture and art, and left it for future generations, a physical reminder of the infinite potential of creating beauty inspired by the Soul.
The trees on our planet have held intelligence for future sight and ways to rebuild, to heal and to regenerate in beauty and harmony, and the builders of Florence show what becomes possible when that intelligence is brought into form. We have the opportunity to learn from both if we choose.
So how do we begin?
All that we have believed as stories about ourselves may not be true, and much of what we absorbed from society was noise. Time in the forest with the trees who hold living memory is key to collapsing the illusion of separation, and time in Florence reminds us what we can build when we live from the Soul. The trees are waiting to share the ways of resilience, adaptation, collaboration and true compassion. What we create now becomes our future, and this retreat is your calling to slow down in nature, take the precious time to fully know yourself, and be moved, surprised, delighted and grounded in the beauty of your Soul.
photography by Manuelo Bececco Fotografia
The Root Up retreat is in two parts. First we gather and listen in the ancient Casentino Forest, close to the edge of the Sasso Fratino reserve, and we walk the Path of St Francis at La Verna, the mountain sanctuary where Francis retreated into stillness among these forests. He is known for the Canticle of the Creatures, in which he recognised kinship with all of nature: Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind and Air, Sister Water, Brother Fire, and Sister Mother Earth.
By allowing something as ancient as a forest to guide us, we stretch time, because its consciousness has been on the planet longer than we know, and this is how we come to understand adaptation, regeneration and cooperation. A forest ecosystem is older than any of its trees, since each tree is born from a seed, and the wisdom to thrive is stored in the seed and in the soil. Each tree desires to express the deep yearning held within its seed, and this is the inner work of The Kinship.
The second part of our retreat is exploring the delights of Florence: the arts, the architecture, and the frequency still alive in the geometry and in the flow of a paintbrush, a world created by that inner fire, the passion to express a beauty that would inspire the next world.
The Renaissance builders
From the grown intelligence of the forest, we move to the built intelligence of Florence, where the same harmonic order was shaped into stone and fresco.
Our time in Florence is an immersion in the architecture and art of the Renaissance, the “rebirth” era that carried Europe from the medieval world into the modern one through a deliberate revival of art, literature, philosophy and science.
Brunelleschi, Alberti and Leonardo worked deliberately with proportion and geometry. Alberti and Leonardo drew directly on Vitruvius and on the Pythagorean idea that music, number and space share one harmonic order, and Luca Pacioli wrote a whole book on it, De divina proportione, illustrated by Leonardo.
They brought that harmony into form and left it for generations to walk through, and we stand among their work as builders of what comes next.
Root Up deepens the experience of The Kinship, in which we explore what it means to live aligned to our deepest soul desires, and explore the intersection of nature’s living ecosystems and interstellar intelligence. You are welcome to join the retreat on its own or if you feel inspired, you can learn more about The Kinship and join our journey after the retreat.
We are inviting a group of extraordinary humans on this journey, to heal, to ground, to dream your dreams into reality, and to remember that we thrive from the roots up. It is also a week of beauty, delicious food and playfulness, because that is how we come alive.
This is an immersive and highly personalised retreat, and to honour your process, spaces are limited. Your journey begins with a discovery call with me, a chance for me to meet you, to hear what is calling you here, and to best support your creative spark.
I look forward to meeting you and walking with you the sacred path of deep devotion for all life. If you wish to join us, email me directly or send a message through the form below.