The teacher passed back the weekly spelling quiz—covered in X’s and crowned with a big fat F. I was six years old and had just arrived from Brazil, and the only word I could recall was “cat.” I misspelled that, too.
Decades later, I’ve just purchased a multi-unit property in Salemi, Sicily, now affectionately nicknamed the Cat House.
A girl who once failed a three-letter spelling quiz is heading to Puglia to finally learn how to write.
Growing up between Brazil and America, I never felt I fully belonged to either. Italy was the country that didn’t ask me to choose. Growing up bilingual also made me a self-proclaimed run-on-sentence queen—something I wore as a badge of honor long before I realized it was just my brain thinking faster than my words could keep up. Being diagnosed with ADHD at 47 did help explain a few things.
It took me two trips to Italy to understand that I didn’t want to visit it. I wanted to experience it. The first one I ran through like a checklist. The second one, I sat still long enough to actually arrive. I remember sitting outside a café near the Vatican, a cold Peroni in hand, sun on my skin, while Max ducked inside to buy something. I was filled with such tremendous joy and gratitude that I cried. It was the trip where we stopped being tourists and started feeling like we belonged. Expedia calls it JOMO — the Joy of Missing Out — and 62% of travelers say it reduces stress and anxiety.
According to Booking.com’s 2025 research involving 32,000 travelers, 77% are seeking authentic experiences that reflect local culture. Yoga retreats, language immersion programs, culinary tours — travelers aren’t just going somewhere anymore. They’re going somewhere to learn something, feel something, become something. Writing retreats are part of this wave.
The Writing Grove
Lloyd Miner, founder of the Writing Grove Retreat, didn’t plan to end up in Puglia. During the pandemic, grounded at home in the Netherlands, he started listening to travel podcasts just to feel like the world was still out there. One of them mentioned Puglia. A property consultant named Nikki Taylor — whom I had also followed for years — pointed him specifically toward Nardò. When he finally visited, he walked down a street, stopped in front of a grand palazzo, and knew immediately. He was already running a writing group in the Netherlands. Moving to Nardò, it turned out, was kismet.
Writing Retreat in Nardo, Puglia
I’ll be arriving in Puglia for the first time, which feels exactly right. There’s something about a place you’ve never been that keeps you present—unhurried, open, and absorbing everything. New landscape, new light, new air. The perfect scenery for a writer in the making to find her words.
I signed up because I was tired of pretending to be a writer and feeling like an imposter. What I needed was time and space to hear my own thoughts. This was a chance to finally see what could make it onto paper.
No, I’m not writing a book—at least not yet. And no, I’m not a published author. But it was time.
As Lloyd puts it, the retreat is for anyone who writes or wants to start writing but has run into roadblocks due to life, self-doubt, or lack of confidence. All genres welcome.
I tell stories for a living—through my camera, on video, and on my blog. But there is a difference between telling a story and knowing how to structure one. That’s what I’m going there to learn.
An Intimate Masterclass in Salento
This retreat also features an intimate masterclass with Italian author Francesca Marciano, whose novels and short story collections are published by Pantheon Books. Sitting in a room in southern Italy, learning the craft from an Italian author in the country I love most—I still can’t quite believe this is real life.
The Ionian Sea sends its mist through the air. Church bells answer. Nardò sits in the heart of Salento, less crowded than Lecce or Gallipoli, and all the better for it. Its centerpiece is Piazza Salandra—considered one of the most beautiful Baroque squares in all of southern Italy. Lloyd describes Nardò as both calming and inspiring—and from everything I have read, I believe him. It’s the kind of place that only wants you to slow down.
The retreat itself is woven into the town’s fabric. Nearly every euro spent goes directly back to local artisans, restaurants, and the restoration of historic palazzos. And for every participant who attends, Lloyd plants a disease-resistant olive tree—helping to regenerate agriculture devastated by disease in recent years. There is something poetic about that. Writers use paper. Paper comes from trees.
Attend A Retreat
The Writing Grove Retreat runs May 18–24, 2026, in Nardò, with an additional session planned for October. For those ready to trade their daily routine for a writing room in southern Italy, details and registration are available at writinggrove.com.
Somewhere in Puglia, a freshly planted olive tree will have my name on it. And somewhere inside me, a six-year-old girl who once failed the word ‘cat’ will finally feel like she got it right—F’s and all.
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