A retreat for twelve: why the house suits yoga groups

Best season

April to June, September to October

Group size

Up to 12 people

Space

1,500 m² grounds, pool terrace, lawn

Retreats rarely fail on the programme. They fail on the accommodation: too little room to practise, too noisy, everyone too far apart, a kitchen where eight people cannot stand at once. Those are exactly the points where Casa Bellavista is useful.

Space to practise

Outside there are two surfaces. The paved pool terrace sits in the house's shade in the morning and is level, the obvious choice for a sunrise session. The lawn under the fruit trees is softer and more pleasant later in the day.

For wet days there is the living area: generously proportioned, terracotta floors, high beamed ceiling. The sofas can be pushed aside. If you are planning for ten or twelve, walk the space through with us beforehand: it is enough, but it is not lavish.

Eating and living together

The kitchen is a proper country kitchen with generous worktops, made for people who cook together. The dining table seats twelve in one piece, which sounds trivial but decides whether a group knits together or splits into two tables.

Be honest about the rooms: four bedrooms, one of them with bunk beds, plus a sofa bed in the living room. For twelve adults that means sharing. For eight to ten it becomes comfortable.

Why spring and autumn

July and August are hot and the coast is full. April to June and September to October are the months when the landscape is green, the temperature suits moving outdoors, and nobody queues for anything in the villages. For retreats that is the right window, and for us it is the quiet season.

The sea at Senigallia is about twenty kilometres away. Enough for a sunrise session on the beach.