WHAT’S THE VIBE?

Every summer I’m flooded with messages for ‘Corfu tips’. This retreat is the ultimate combination of those tips. It’s wild flower foraging in endless olive groves that end in secret beaches, learning to brew traditional Greek coffee with my Yiayia and reading the future in the coffee grounds, getting to know the inspiration behind my books Yiayia and Grand Dishes, those old ladies dressed in black, hidden behind beaded curtains.

On this retreat we’ll explore Greek culture on a deeper level. We’ll meet locals, create and converse. We’ll visit local producers and eat at the very best of Corfu’s restaurants and sea-front tavernas. We’ll cook Corfiot dishes as a group and enjoy the company of new people in a beautiful,18th Century Venetian villa.

This is an eating holiday. There’s no yoga or mindfulness. What we do is cook, create, indulge as well as hike, swim and enjoy some workshops that combine our love for food with a playful, creative element. There’s also dancing. Obviously.

It’s simply about showing you the very best of my island’s secrets while eating some really good food and having fun in the process.

It seems that everything I do is somehow inspired by my Yiayia so I will of course, be including some moments in which we channel our own roots and culinary heritage - in an ode to our grandmothers and the matriarch figures in our lives.

So hoping you can join!

Anastasia x

what we’ll get up to and what’s included

Stay in a beautiful Corfiot manor house

All meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) across the week featuring the best flavours of Corfu

Enjoy a meal with Yiayia (my Greek grandmother and inspiration behind my books Yiayia and Grand Dishes)

A series of weaving workshops with Greek weaver Maria Sigma, allowing you to make your own souvenir on the loom to take with you.

A wine tasting

An olive oil tour and tasting with a chance to meet local producers, with the opportunity to buy home-grown produce direct from them

Hikes through dense olive groves to secret beaches

Visits to hilltop villages

Lunch at seafront tavernas

Corfiot cooking workshops

Writing workshops

A comprehensive guide to eating in Corfu and other spots to visit in your free time

Spaces for this retreat are limited.

Please email me to reserve your spot!

island of gastronomy

As well as being my island, where I was raised and where I have spent every summer of my life, Corfu has somehow managed to absorb the influences of so many other places and people. The Venetians brought olive cultivation to the island, as well as some of our most iconic dishes, like the sweet, cinnamon-spiked Stifado (in Venetian ‘Stufato’) stew, a completely different flavour to what you might find in the rest of Greece.

They also influenced the architecture on the island, which in contrast to the stark white homes of the Cyclades, are rich reds, faded pinks and golds. Corfu Town, with its narrow alleyways strung up with washing and cobblestone paving feels like Venice, though it was the French that built its most famous esplanade ‘The Liston’, now my favourite place to sip on a glass of white wine and people watch.

The English influence is also inescapable. Prince Phillip (of Greece, before he married the Queen) was born at Mon Repos Palace in Corfu, a spot I like to swim at when the day gets too chaotic in Corfu town. Writers like Edward Lear and Gerald Durrell made the island their home in the past and though tourism has changed the island since then, there are so many secret sides to Corfu that you can only truly discover with a local. Hence, this retreat.

WHERE WE’LL STAY

We will be staying in an 18th Century Venetian Manor home - a symbol of Corfu’s illustrious history which remains a family residence even now. It’s very well located in the hills above a fishing village, giving us relatively speedy access to both the rural south of the island and Corfu town. Its location way above the village also lends it a sense of serenity, not so easily found on the coastline. Antique furniture, plenty of original features and sweeping views across the turquoise Ionian and onto the mainland contribute to the house’s romantic appeal.

We’ll be enjoying pool-side aperitivos and dining al fresco on the veranda as much as possible…

THE ANCIENT GREEK ART OF WEAVING

When my Yiayia was a little girl, a small loom would be an ordinary object many women would have around the house. In generations spanning back to ancient times, the women of Greece would use their time at the loom as a meditative moment to escape the pressures of the day, taking a few hours out to drink herbal tea and gossip with other women in the village. We’re nodding to this ‘break’ from the stresses of every day life with our own weaving workshop.

Working between Athens and London with strong links to Corfu too, Maria Sigma is an award-winning textile designer specialising in zero-waste and ethical, hand woven textiles.

Following the ancient Greek practice of weaving on a loom, Maria is a visionary artist who transforms exceptional natural materials into captivating textiles for clients that include MAKE Hauser & Wirth Somerset Gallery, Soho House, Selfridges, TOAST, COS, The New Craftsmen, Conran Design, and Rockwell Group.

Together we’ll connect with the women of our Yiayia’s generation and their grandmothers before them, taking to our small frame looms to craft beautiful textiles we can take home with us as a memory of our time together in Corfu.

Over two workshops with Maria, we’ll learn the foundational weaving skills, such as warping and basic weaving techniques and patterns that the women of the island once used to craft rugs and other home interiors.

You’ll be encouraged to discover your own distinctive ‘voice’ as a weaver and can choose to craft whatever you’d like. The weaving kit will then be yours to take home with you, along with the frame loom you weave on during the workshops.

RETREAT PRICING (in GBP)

£2900 for a double room if you’re attending solo
£2300 per person when sharing with a friend

The deposit to save your place is £900

Please drop me an email if you’d like to reserve your place and have questions as they are limited!