3 Retreat Disasters We Can Laugh About Now (But Definitely Weren’t Laughing Then)

By Nancy, Co-Founder of Create Space Wellness

After hosting more than ten sold-out retreats in Italy, there’s one thing Daniella and I know for certain: no matter how carefully we plan our retreats, something will inevitably go off-script. It might be the weather. It might be the villa. Or, if you're particularly talented like us, you might lock your car keys inside the car while your guests are waiting for you at the port. Yep that actually happened to us!

The funny thing is, some of the moments that felt like complete disasters at the time have become our favourite stories to tell. Because that’s part of the magic of Italy: when things don’t go to plan, people show up. A chef, a driver, a friend of a friend — there’s always someone picking up the phone and saying, “Don’t worry, I know someone!"

Running a retreat is a little bit like life: things won’t always go to plan. It taught us you always need a Plan B, why the people you choose to work with matter enormously and, perhaps most importantly, why your guests don’t need everything to be perfect to have an unforgettable experience.

So rather than another blog about how to create the “perfect retreat”, let me tell you about a few of ours that were anything but.

The one where it rained…and rained…and rained

We had imagined morning yoga overlooking the Mediterranean sea, lazy afternoons by the pool, endless blue skies, gelato in the sunshine, basically all those little moments that make people fall hopelessly in love with Italy.

We'd asked the locals about the weather in May.

They confidently reply, "Non ti preoccupare, Maggio non piove mai!" (Don't worry it never rains in May). Excellent. What could possibly go wrong?

Apparently, that year, quite a lot.

And when I say rain, I don’t mean a romantic Italian shower where you shelter under an awning with an Aperol Spritz until the sun reappears twenty minutes later. I mean proper, relentless, what-is-happening-to-the-Amalfi-Coast rain.

We suddenly had a villa full of guests who had travelled all the way to Italy for this life changing, transformative and living the 'la dolce vita' experience. The guilt we felt was real. There was nothing we could do about the rain, so instead of trying to save our itinerary, we focused on saving the experience. And this is where our local friends and suppliers really stepped up.

Our in-house chef turned each evening into something magical. Guests gathered around the kitchen as she cooked, tasting, learning and sharing stories, before sitting down together over plates of beautiful Italian food. Dinner began to feel less like part of the itinerary and more like being welcomed into an Italian home. Plans were moved, activities changed and some things were simply abandoned. And you know what? Everyone still had a wonderful time.

Nobody went home talking about the activity that had been scheduled but didn't happen. They remembered sitting around the kitchen with an Italian chef, long conversations over meals, belly laughter and the unexpected experiences that emerged because our original plans had gone completely out of the window.

That first retreat changed the way we plan.

Then there was the hot-water incident.

There’s a lovely moment on the first day of a retreat when everyone has finally arrived. After months of planning, the rooms are ready, the welcome gifts are waiting, and you have this incredible group of women together under one roof. You finally exhale and think, We did it.

And then someone says, “I don’t think there’s any hot water.”

Sorry, what?

There was, indeed, no hot water. On.day.one.

Internally, Daniella and I were freaking out! Fortunately, we had partnered with an established property management company. A technician came out on the same day and fixed the problem. Hot showers resumed and what initially felt like a potential disaster became a relatively minor hiccup.

It taught us something important about choosing properties in Italy. The beautiful old villas here are part of what makes hosting a retreat in Italy so special. They have history and character but beautiful old buildings are still, well…old buildings. Things occasionally stop working.

So now, one of the questions we consider when looking at a property isn’t simply, “Is this villa beautiful?” It’s “Who am I calling at 8am when something stops working?”

The one where we locked the keys in the car…

This one still makes us laugh because it was entirely our own fault. We were due to collect our guests from the port and take them to Sorrento for a pizza evening. It should have been a very simple afternoon after a fantastic day out at sea.

Except somehow we locked the car keys inside the car.

Our guests were arriving at the port.

We were supposed to be picking them up.

Oh. My. God.

The only thing to do was to start calling people.

This is one of the things I love most about this part of Italy. The Amalfi Coast may be one of the most famous destinations in the world, but its communities still feel wonderfully small. Everyone knows someone who knows someone, and one phone call somehow turns into five people trying to help.  Before long, two taxis were on their way to collect our guests.

And the best part? Our guests had the best time.

While Daniella and I were dealing with the 'Great Car Key Disaster', they were laughing and chatting with their Italian taxi drivers all the way to Sorrento. By the time we met for pizza, what had felt like a disaster to us had simply become part of the adventure for them.

That experience taught us something no spreadsheet ever could: connections matter. Not just when things go wrong, but in creating the moments that make a retreat truly special. Perhaps the biggest lesson of all is that a retreat doesn’t have to be perfect to be unforgettable. Often, it’s the moments you never planned that people remember most.

We learnt the hard way, so you don’t have to

Recently we’ve been talking to yoga teachers, coaches and wellness professionals who dream of bringing their own communities to Italy. Most already have the most important ingredients: something meaningful to share and people who trust them. It’s everything around the retreat that can make taking that first step feel overwhelming.

So alongside hosting our own retreats, we’re now helping others create theirs. You bring your community, your vision and the thing only you can offer. We bring the local knowledge, connections and support to help make it happen.

Because if more than ten retreats, and a few spectacular mishaps, have taught us anything, it’s that you don’t need to know everything or do everything alone. Sometimes, you just need the right people around you.

Nancy x

Co-Founder, Create Space Wellness