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Coming April 20-25, 2008 Scanner Retreat in beautiful Puglia,
Italy!
Find Your Tribe!
April
2008
Tuition: $2000
($1600 if you sign up before Feb 15)
Scanner: Someone fascinated by so many areas she can’t settle for just one.
If you haven’t been able to settle down
into one path because you’re fascinated by so many others, if
everyone around you thinks there’s something wrong with you, listen carefully: you’ve been the victim of mistaken
identity. There’s nothing wrong with you at all. It’s time you
found your fellow Scanners so you can enjoy who you really are.
And it’s time to stop being judged—and judging yourself—and start
creating the life you wanted all along.
Best selling author, Barbara Sher, whose
groundbreaking ideas over the last 35 years have made her ‘the
godmother of life coaching’ has created a unique new program that
will teach you:
- Who you really are and why you’re
lucky to be a Scanner;
- What’s behind your ‘hit and run
obsessions (There’s a good reason for them!)
- How (and when) to finish what you
start;
- What tools you need to do your very
best work at everything you love; and
- How to find the career that you’ll
never grow tired of.
First described in her 1994 New York
Times Best Seller “I Could Do Anything, if Only I
Knew What it
Was” and followed this year by her exciting new book “Refuse to
Choose”, ‘Scanners’ (also known as renaissance men and women,
eclectic experts, happy amateurs and delighted dilettantes) can
now come into their own with this intensive
retreat in beautiful Puglia, Italy.
Last April, Barbara and son Matthew (of Corfu fame) scouted out
some new sites for the next retreat and discovered a gorgeous
17th century country estate in the midst of miles of olive tree
orchards in southern Italy.
Matt and his family had discovered this area a few months
ago. They ferried over from Corfu for a vacation and visited the
coastal medieval towns and modern cities in the boot of Italy.
That's when he discovered Ostuni, a small, lovely town that's a
few kilometers inland up on a hill with a view of the sea. He
was so taken with the place.
I saw what he meant. The town is peaceful and simply
beautiful. The main park and the little side streets (for
walkers only) are charming and full of restaurants serving
fabulous food at reasonable prices.
But the surrounding countryside is even better. We drove
miles on small dirt roads, seeing few other cars, moving through
olive groves with ancient trees, creating a lovely atmosphere of
order and peace. We stopped the car, turned off the engine and
walked quietly on the road in the calmest silence you can
imagine. Olive trees are special, they say. I now believe it.
Our search took us through more farm country, past charming
little houses with cone roofs, clustered together by the side of
the road (they're called 'Trulli') that looked like the houses
of gnomes.
And then we found our Masseria. They translate 'Masseria' to
mean 'large farm house' but this is no farm house; it's a
gorgeous country estate built entirely of stone, with main
houses and side houses, courtyards and hidden gardens, and its
own beautiful church. We were shown through kitchen gardens and
flower gardens with bowers and stone benches and a fountain.
Then we entered the building that holds the huge olive press
with its massive millstones and cauldrons sitting in their stone
enclosures, all of it now transformed into a dining room takes
your imagination back to a raucous scene straight from the
middle ages, with flagons of mead and joints of meat being torn
apart.
So, we've decided
always to come in September and April, when the weather is
pleasant and before the tourists arrive.
"Like now," she said. "You'll have the place to yourself."
We didn't ask "How much," until later and the answer was just
as surprising: you can stay in one of the lovely rooms (many
with antique beds and arched stone walls) for under 30 euros a
night.
Dinner was inexpensive, too, and hearty. Like the restaurants
in Ostuni, it gave new meaning to the word "antipasto." No
'olives and sliced salami' here, but up to 12 different and
delicious hot dishes -- before the main course! (Don't worry,
you won't get fat because you won't be able to stop walking in
the towns or swimming in the sea during the midday break and in
the evenings.)
The people who run the Masseria are so nice and we're told we
can have the use of a minibus, too, to travel to the nearby
towns. I'm not usually a shopper, but Italy might change me. The
elegant shops for clothing, purses, shoes in the Puglia towns
and cities will bring out your inner Material Human (and I found
some great bookstores, too).
Enough. You can see endless gorgeous photos on Flickr.com.
Just look up 'Puglia Italy Ostuni' when you get there. If you
click the link below, I'll show you a few of ours, too.
For more information
and sign-up form, click here
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