Oct. 19-26, 2025
A women-only ‘week away’ in Puglia designed to nourish and rejuvenate through the practice of pilates and learning the Italian art of being present.
Be Present, Practice Pilates, and Travel to Italy with Tatiana
Join Tatiana for eight days spent on a masseria, a fortified farm converted into a beautiful hotel surrounded by olive groves, where you will observe a ‘slower’ approach to place and time. Each day will begin with pilates followed by activities that embrace this practice's approach to nourishing and strengthening the body.
Along with Tatiana and your fellow travelers, you will visit nearby vineyards and savor their wine, cycle between seaside towns, create ceramics with local artisans, taste fresh olive oil from zero-kilometer producers, learn traditional Puglian recipes in cooking lessons, and sail the emerald waters of the Adriatic. Yet there will also be time to unwind—whether by the pool, among the olive groves, or over fantastic food, wine, and candlelit dinners with friends.
Practicing pilates in Puglia will introduce body and movement awareness while daily activities will encourage the art of living in the moment. Throughout this week you will have a unique opportunity to encounter the individuals whose daily lives embody the life and soul of what it means to be Pugliese all while enjoying the stunning beauty of Italy.
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A Weeklong Southern Italian Retreat
Day 1. Welcome to Italy: introducing a week of candlelit dinners, conversation, and wine
Day 2. Cycling Salento: savoring small town treasures and seaside views
Day 3. Art and wine: a ceramics workshop and wine tasting
Day 4. Hiking the coast and a cooking lesson with locals
Day 5. Lecce: 'the Florence of the South'
Day 6. Sailing the Adriatic: the Italian art of 'dolce far niente'
Day 7. La Dolce Vita: cheese making, olive oil, and the music and dance of Puglia
Day 8. Pilates to Bring Home
Self care doesn’t just mean pampering, it means intentional practices that will keep you healthy far into the future. Pilates trains your body to make intelligent movements that support your body all day, every day. Travel encourages a perspective of vulnerability, of stepping into the new and beautiful in order to rediscover the new and beautiful within yourself. From this perspective, an experience of the ‘importance of place’ in Puglia is equally to realize that connectedness within yourself.
After arriving at your Pugliese masseria, operating as a farm from the 1700's, you'll check into your room and be free to relax by the pool with a glass of wine or visit the spa. At 4:00 pm you'll gather for an orientation to Alithea's style of slow travel in Puglia while meeting the ladies you'll be hiking, cycling, and relaxing with over the coming week.
This evening you'll have dinner together at the masseria—your first taste of Puglia's hospitality and the pleasure of being connected to nature through food and wine.
At 8:00 am your day will begin with an hour of Pilates followed by breakfast.
Mid-morning, you'll set out for a day of cycling as you cover the territory that reveals the DNA of Puglia in the traces of Greek and Byzantine history, beautiful seaside towns, and medieval castles and marvelously frescoed churches. While moving at the speed of a bicycle you’ll have more time for conversation, observation, and the feeling that slowing everything down means seeing more of the world around you, not less.
In the late afternoon, you’ll return to the masseria in time for a slow flow Pilates session with Tatiana followed by a free evening.
Biking: ~ 4 hours
After your morning of Pilates and breakfast, you’ll give your glutes a rest with a day dedicated to ceramics and wine. Your first stop this morning will be a ceramics workshop where you’ll have a chance to throw clay with a local potter before heading out for a late lunch at a nearby vineyard where you’ll taste the great Pugliese wines.
After returning to the masseria, Tatiana will lead a slow flow Pilates session. You'll be free for dinner this evening, either at the restaurant of the masseria or in town a twenty-minute walk from the farm.
Bus time: ~1 hour
After a morning of Pilates dedicated to body-awareness and the practice of intelligent movements, you’ll set out for a day of hiking and swimming along the coast.
In the late afternoon you’ll return to the masseria for a cooking lesson where you’ll learn to make orecchiette, i maccheroncini, e le sagne ncannulate, the home made pastas of Salento, followed by dinner.
Hiking: ~ 5 hours
After Pilates and breakfast, you’ll depart for nearby Lecce, the jewel of Puglia, as rich in baroque architecture as in its thousands of years of history dating back to the Trojan War.
This morning you’ll walk through the civilizations from the Greeks, Romans, Normans, to the Holy Roman Empire and modern Italian state with a walking tour through the city followed by free time for lunch.
In the mid-afternoon you’ll return to the masseria in time for a slow flow Pilates session led by Tatiana and a quick swim or aperitivo by the pool before dinner.
Moving at the speed of the wind, you’ll observe the coastline and caves from the sea, taking time to swim and to enjoy Pugliese food and wine.
After returning to the masseria in the late afternoon, Tatiana will lead a slow flow Pilates session.
After Pilates and breakfast, you’ll hop back on bikes to cycle to a nearby farm where you’ll learn to make mozzarella or another local cheese that you’ll be able to make again when you return home.
Your next stop this morning will be a traditional frantoio where you’ll taste the local olive oil of a local farmer that still speaks griko or the ancient language of the Greeks.
This afternoon you’ll have some free time to relax by the pool, visit the spa, or join Tatiana for a slow flow Pilates session before this evening’s celebrations where you’ll learn the traditional dance and songs of the pizzica with the women of Puglia.
Biking: ~1.5 hrs
This women’s retreat concludes with a final Pilates practice and breakfast. Your guide and pilates instructor will be available to help with the next leg of your journey as you continue to practice the intentionality of movement and the art of being present everywhere you go.
For further questions don't hesitate to reach out to us directly.
Previous pilates experience is not necessary; however, pilates is a cornerstone of the experience and we recommend some familiarity with basic movements before arrival.
This is an active trip with physical activities planned each day. In addition to the morning pilates practice, you will spend considerable time walking, hiking, and cycling throughout the week. If you do not lead an active lifestyle or would like recommendations on how to prepare physically for the trip, please write to us before signing up.
The masseria is about one hour by car from Brindisi (BDS), the closest airport. You can also fly into Bari (BRI) or other Italian cities and take the train to Lecce. From Lecce it’s about 30 minutes by car to the masseria. Wherever you choose to arrive, we recommend setting up a transfer service with Daniele Scodari (danieletransfer@libero.it).
There is much more to see in Puglia and spending a little extra time in the masseria is a great way to settle into the rhythms of southern Italy. If you wish to extend your stay before or after the trip dates, let us know and we’ll help coordinate the additional nights.
For further questions don't hesitate to reach out to us directly.
Previous pilates experience is not necessary; however, pilates is a cornerstone of the experience and we recommend some familiarity with basic movements before arrival.
This is an active trip with physical activities planned each day. In addition to the morning pilates practice, you will spend considerable time walking, hiking, and cycling throughout the week. If you do not lead an active lifestyle or would like recommendations on how to prepare physically for the trip, please write to us before signing up.
The masseria is about one hour by car from Brindisi (BDS), the closest airport. You can also fly into Bari (BRI) or other Italian cities and take the train to Lecce. From Lecce it’s about 30 minutes by car to the masseria. Wherever you choose to arrive, we recommend setting up a transfer service with Daniele Scodari (danieletransfer@libero.it).
There is much more to see in Puglia and spending a little extra time in the masseria is a great way to settle into the rhythms of southern Italy. If you wish to extend your stay before or after the trip dates, let us know and we’ll help coordinate the additional nights.
Tatiana is a dynamic fitness professional whose mission is rooted in helping people connect deeply with their bodies and feel their strongest, most aligned selves. Raised in Queens, NY and educated in Nutrition and Exercise Sciences, Tatiana discovered her calling as a personal trainer—and never looked back.
With nearly a decade of experience in the fitness industry, Tatiana's love of helping others is more than a job, it's a vocation. Her philosophy—movement is medicine—guides her work every day.
Tatiana has trained clients of all ages, from in-person sessions to coaching thousands globally through her digital platforms. Her love of people and connection has fueled everything from launching her app in 2020 to speaking for the NSCA, being featured in Health and Women’s Health Magazine, and building a vibrant, supportive fitness community online and in person.
Whether she's teaching at Tremble Miami or designing custom programs for women worldwide, Tatiana’s mission is clear: to help people move better, feel stronger, and live fuller lives—with joy, curiosity, and confidence at every step.
With a combined background in European travel, ecotourism, Latin America, philosophy, and ancient languages, Jesse and Nate Blackwood founded Alithea Travel with the goal, not of simply introducing the great and hidden wonders of the world, but of providing life changing experiences. Their vision for travel is built around a belief in human potential and the revitalizing power of beauty, history, the natural world.
Growing up in a family of ten, both are both committed to the credo that every traveler’s journey, great or small, has the power to renew, strengthen, and inspire. Guided by the human capacity for friendship, wonder, and self-agency, Jesse and Nate provide trips that invite travelers, not just to see the world, but to eliminate the distractions of the modern world and to be strengthened in mind, body, and soul.
Whether reading the text of ancient authors in the places where they were written, traveling beyond the confines of the digital world to the far reaches of the Colombian jungle, uncovering a slower pace of life in the rhythms of southern Italy, following the footsteps of gods and heroes in the myths of Greece, climbing mountains, or sailing the Adriatic, the purpose of travel is not just an experience of wonder and the grandeur of the world, it’s about becoming one's true self.
