I am about ready to leave for Pantelleria, Italy,  where I am offering a yoga retreat to a wonderful group of yogis/yoginis.  I am looking forward to being with, doing yoga with, and retreating with this group for 7 days! I leave tomorrow, on Tuesday, September 7th and will be back on Sunday, September 19th (and ready to teach my classes on Monday, the 20th!).

Pantelleria is known as “The Black Pearl of the Mediterranean” (la Perla Nera).  It is one of Sicily’s largest islands and is bursting with geothermic energy.  The locals talk about this place being a powerful spiritual island situated on an energetic vortex.  It is only 27 miles off the coast of Africa (Tunisia) and on a clear day, you can see the African coast.  In fact, the island is closer to Africa than it is to Italy.  The weather is warm and sunny (and last year we had rain!), and there is a constant breeze which inspired the present name of the island, Pantelleria, which was originally “Bent-el-Rhion” of Arab derivation, literally meaning “daughter of the wind”.  The Greeks called the island Kosyras, and the Romans used the purer form of the ancient Byzantine name Cossrya, meaning “little one”.

Pantelleria is the world’s largest exporter of capers.  A well known sweet wine, Passito, is made here.  On Pantelleria, we feast on oranges, sweet Pantescan sun ripened tomatoes, olives, cheese, and seafood.  Hot springs, a thermal lake, natural saunas, clear swimming water, coves, lava stone walls, the island homes called “dammusi”  (which have a specific form of architecture with cisterns and thick walls to keep the heat out), archeological sites, and history await us!

I offered the same retreat last year (week one and week two) and I loved the experience so much I wanted to offer this retreat once again.  Since I don’t foresee doing this particular retreat a third time (because there are so many other places I want to explore for yoga retreats-like Tuscany September 2011!), this retreat week spent on Pantelleria will be more precious than ever.  Marilyn (my assistant for this retreat from the US end of things) and I can’t wait to see our Pantescan assistant Ermina, and her helper Giuliana, the cook Rina and her staff, our tour guide Tonino and his wife Serafina, and Tonino’s assistant Saverio.  The Pantescan people are warm and kind hearted, island country folk.  I won’t be stopping over to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins in Grotte (this would require a ferry trip to Trapani or Palermo and more time away from Rick), but everyone we meet on the island is like family.  They embrace you, take care of you, and feed you luscious organic food fit for a god or a goddess.  Between the people, the setting, the coastline, the Mediterranean Sea, valleys, coves, bays known as “calas”,  food and drink,  the rich history of the place, the outings which include a boat tour around the island with stops to take a dip at coves here and there, a hike, a land tour  of the island which includes soaking in hot springs, the finest mineral mud baths in all of Europe at the thermal crater lake called Venus Lake/Venus’ Mirror/Specchio di Venere, and the yoga, this trip is definitely a retreat and a treat!

I am trying to rest up this weekend so I have all the energy I need to make this retreat the best it can be!  We have a nice group of people gathering and I can’t wait to pick everyone up at the Pantelleria airport when they arrive on Saturday, September 11!

I hope to be able to log on while at the Sea Ranch and to find time to blog while I am in Italy- at least a few times while I am there!

Lastly, I leave you with some incredible images from last year on Pantelleria:

Venus Mirror Lake  (Specchio di Venere):

Lava rock wall:

T-Shirt  “Un uomo senza panza e come un cielo senza stelle.” Translation:  “A man without a belly is like a sky without stars.”

Visual imagery to Homer’s description of the “wine dark sea”: