The Wild Heart Retreat
A One of a Kind Somatic Storytelling & Culturally Immersive Tour of Tuscany
September 19th-26th 2026
Join Michael McRay and Selena Garefino for an exquisite week of somatic storytelling, gastronomic adventures, and cultural explorations in the heart of Tuscany.
This curated, small group tour & storytelling immersion is a sensory experience you'll cherish for years to come.
This retreat experience seamlessly blends cultural exploration with self-discovery, fostering a space for joyful, intentional personal work and conscious travel.
Picturesque towns, a private chef, private tours and exclusive experiences, this is the insider's Tuscany.
More than your typical tour & more than your typical retreat. This experience breaks the mold.
Come Away with Us
A Retreat Experience Like None Other
The Wild Heart is more than a tour and more than a retreat. Part Tuscany tour, part personal development and story retreat, this exclusive experience is centered not only on providing a space to explore self and story but on delighting your senses and bringing the history, food, wine, landscape, and stories of Tuscany alive. Because having fun is a spiritual act.
Outside of your sessions with Michael and Selena you will immerse yourself in the history, story, traditions, and gastronomy of Tuscany. Taste and explore world-class wineries and and savor culinary delights with expert guides.
You will enjoy Tuscany as if you were visiting personal friends, savoring recipes handed down for generations and methods of production practiced for centuries.
This is more than a tour it is a full sensory experience that will captivate you.
Our historical tours are guided by hand-selected experts that showcasing the best of this region that borders both Umbria and Tuscany.
Your week includes somatic storytelling sessions with Michael and Selena, food, wine, and cultural tours. Truffle hunting expeditions, dance, live music, ancient art, and sensory delights await.
Storytelling Immersion
The Wild Heart is your invitation to...INSERT SOME TEXT ABOUT STORY AND THE WORK WE DO.
Savor the Tastes of Tuscany
From dining with our private chef at our Tuscan villa, to the gorgeous cheeses of Pienza, truffle hunting and olive oil tasting this tour offers an unforgettable culinary experience.
Your tour also includes cooking classes so you can take a taste of Tuscany home.
Together we’ll explore authentic Tuscan cuisine and foods from around Italy. You will harvest our prized truffles, make traditional pastas, sample olive oils, savor meals with our private chef, and enjoy the best that Tuscany has to offer.
Indulge the Senses
Immerse yourself in the sights, sounds and smells of Tuscan life. A full sensory tour to nourish and excite the whole of you.
Art, history, architecture, and culinary adventures are only the beginning of this sensory exploration. From music to food this tour will awaken the senses in ways you cannot imagine. Every element of this tour is curated to delight the senses. During your visit Selena & Michael, will guide you to experience The Veglia, an ancient Tuscan storytelling tradition for an immersive cultural experience. Guests will gather round the fire in the evenings for storytelling and song. A tradition shared globally but with a particular Tuscany flare.
The Wines of Tuscany
Tuscan wines are some of the most renowned wines in the world. During your stay you'll visit wineries and have opportunities to taste some of the best that Tuscany has to offer.
You will visit traditional wineries offering superb wines that are the crown of Tuscany.
READY TO JOIN US?
This is an Intimate travel experience and space is limited.
Take me to tuscany
Tuscany September 19th-26th
Story & Personal Development INSERT TEXT ABOUT WHAT WE DO
Culinary Delights Savor private exquisite curated meals, a private chef at our villa, special cooking classes, truffle hunting, olive oil tasting, and so much more
Excursions enjoy wine tastings, a private tours of some of Tuscany's most picturesque towns, visits to expert artisans and more.
Indulgences Wine tastings, culinary delights, and sensory explorations
Art & History Expert guided tours of historical centers, the kind of tours that make you fall in love, that cajole the past into the present
Tradition local cultural experiences, the veglia (Tuscan storytelling), and so much more
Renewal savor the late summer sun. September boasts warm weather and cool evenings. You'll have heaps of time to enjoy your stunning private pool and luxury villa. Our villa is situated on the border of Umbria and Tuscany offering views of vineyards, Montepulciano, and rolling picturesque hills.
I will be returning in the future. Selena changed my life. If you’re considering going, even a tiny bit, hold tight to it and don’t let go. It’ll make you love your life again. I promise.
Sarah Martin
My trip with Selena was EXCEPTIONAL. I have traveled to Italy many times and this was by FAR my most precious trip. Every detail was so special. I made lifelong connections and the food and excursions unforgettable
Janet
Sensing the world is another way of thinking the world..
"The perceptible world reveals itself to us in endless possibilities of meanings and flavors" -David Le Breton
Life becomes mundane when you surrender your awe. We are here to stoke the fires of your imagination, to awaken your awe, to guide you through 8 days and 7 nights surrendering to the sensorial and story.
Together we will practice the art of dolce far di niente, the sweetness of doing nothing, finding pleasure in the simple and the everyday.
The pleasure of the Tuscan sun on your skin, the scent of fresh crushed herbs, the tannins of an aged wine on your tongue, the touch of ancient cool marble, magnificent works that speak just as clearly today as they did 600 years ago and steeping in stories that invite us into deeper engagement with self, place, and
On our sensory tour you will explore what it is to see and be seen, to experience and be experienced, to connect to a past that is still very much coursing in our veins, and to give new attention to the stories we're telling, carrying, and sharing.
Travel Inclusions
- Welcome Aperitivo Experience
- Transportation to and from Florence in Mercedes van to the retreat
- Accommodations in a luxury Tuscan Villa
- A bespoke welcome gift to remember your journey
- All tours and excursions
- Cooking classes
- Exquisite cuisine throughout your stay
- Wine tastings
- Exceptional tours with guides in love with their subject matter.
- Free time for rest and relaxation
- Professional Photos to commemorate your experience
"This world is but a canvas to our imagination." -Henry David Thoreau
SEE THE ITINERARY →
Take Me Away...Your Itinerary
detailed itinerary with beautiful additions will be provided to our guests.
November 2nd
❖ Depart Rome at 12pm
❖ Venue winery Visit and Tasting
❖ Welcome Dinner
November 3rd
❖ Visit to Montepulciano
❖ Visit and guided tour with award winning coffee producer
❖ Dinner
November 4th
❖ Visit to a 17th century Olive Oil Mill
❖ Tour of Cortona and free time
❖ Dinner
November 5th
❖ Truffle hunting and preparation experience
❖ Dinner
November 6th
❖ Pienza Tour
❖ Flour mill and traditional pasta production
❖ Winery Visit and Tasting
November 7th
❖ Saffron production and cooking
❖ Wine tasting and gorgeous lunch
❖ Assisi Tour
❖ Dinner
November 8th
❖ Return to Rome Depart or nearest train station to continue your journey.
"My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness.”
-Michelangelo Buonarroti
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Experience Tuscany Like an Insider This curated tour is the kind of immersion into the heart of Tuscany that travelers can only dream of. We are here to usher you into the dolce vita of Italy, to let you be immersed in the sights, sounds, art, language, and history of Italy in fully supported way that allows you to simply soak it all in.
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Memories to Last a Lifetime your trip includes photo coverage by Selena. Selena is a portrait and landscape photographer and will be offering portrait sessions as well as coverage of your entire experience. After your trip you will receive access to professional images of your experience to help you memorialize this trip of a lifetime.
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A Personal Renaissance to look at great art, to read great poetry, to engage the senses, is to stir the imagination. Return to the sensory and the sensual, slow down and engage with the land, the history, the food and wine of Tuscany and awaken your awe with us.
"I got saved by the beauty of the world" Mary Oliver
Let's fall in love
Let me begin by saying, if I could give Selena and this trip fifty stars, I would in a heartbeat. I understand how cliche it is to say, “This trip changed my life!” But it truly did. Selena provided a safe space to reconnect with my body, mind, and spirit as emotions I couldn’t fully understand at the time bubbled to the surface. She left us with a simple statement, “Love your life,” that had profound impacts I haven’t fully grasped.
Sarah
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Your Accommodations
Our home for the week is an all new luxury villa that perfectly blends ancient Tuscan architecture with color and modern art to awaken your senses.
You will be treated to stunning views of the rolling hills of Tuscany and Umbria a landscape displaying a harmony of wild nature and the gentle hand of its stewards.
Your stay unfolds as a journey in which all the senses are immersed in an experience of lightness and great beauty.
Our villa boasts views of rolling vineyards, the ancient city of Montepulciano, and beyond.
Gorgeous outdoor dining areas, a private swimming pool, fire pit, and lux accommodations await.
Shared living spaces for rest and relaxation are abundant.
Additional Delights...
1. STUFF ABOUT WHAT WE'RE OFFERING
For guests wishing to engage fully with their embodiment, Selena will offer daily curated meditation, breathwork, and yoga classes to support your journey into the senses.
2. SOME STUFF ABOUT TRIP
Our villa boasts a stunning spa including infrared sauna, hammam, and hot tub. Guests may use the spa daily and will have an opportunity to book massages on site on our rest days.
3. Storytelling and Myth
STUFF ABOUT WHAT WE'RE DOING with story is a myth-teller and folklore specialist and will be offering opportunities for guests to gather around in the evening with a glass of wine and stoke the fire of the imagination with curated storytelling to touch your heart and your mind.
4. STUFF ABOUT THE TRIP
Tatjiana is a Tuscany expert that has lived in the region for 20 years. She is a storyteller that brings art and history to life in a way that will touch your heart. The land and its history comes alive in such a special way with her expert guidance.
A trip of a lifetime...
Your Host
Selena Garefino
OLD BIO NEES UPDATED
Her love of Italy and connection to the land of her grandparents shines through in her passion for the history and storytelling traditions of Italy. She is a lover of food and wine, a home cook, and self proclaimed wine expert.
Selena has guided tours and planned bespoke trips to Italy for almost 12 years.
She is a storyteller, writer, teacher, retreat leader, tour guide, and coach who has spent years guiding people through personal evolution — not just through words, but through the body, through breath, and through deep listening.
She’s an internationally renowned teacher of yoga and meditation, leading global retreats that blend cultural immersion with practices that cultivate clarity, creativity, and inner harmony. Her work is about helping people return to themselves — to find balance, spaciousness, and renewed purpose.
But Selena’s work doesn’t stop on the mat. As a leadership coach and mentor, she works with individuals to unlock their potential, reconnect with their authentic voice, and embrace a life of intentional living. She brings a robust academic foundation — with an MPH from Boston University in International Public Health, a Master’s in Sociocultural Anthropology, and fellowships from Cornell and the Fulbright program.
She’s also trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Hypnosis, and Internal Family Systems coaching — all of which inform her deeply integrative approach to personal growth and narrative transformation.
Your Host
Michael McRay
Tatjana Gorina - professional licensed guide in Florence and Tuscany.
I was born in Vilnius, Lithuania but I’ve been living in Italy since past 20 years.
The last 10 have been dedicated to art!
I took my license in Florence inn 2013 and studied art history, history of Italy and the city as well as all museum collections.
Since then my work has been to take people on a wonderful journey through lives of great masters, architecture, sculpture and painting.
The era of the Renaissance is one of my greatest passions and I can speak about Michelangelo and Medici family for hours, making them come alive!
I guide private tours in five languages and also teach art history and history of the Renaissance online.
Before becoming a tour guide I changed many careers. I studied English language and Philology at University of Vilnius, International Law at University of Siena, Theatre studies and acting in Rome and Florence.
I never stop learning and exploring and all of my varied background builds up to make your experience with me full of impressions and emotions.
My hobbies? There are quite some!
I started learning to play the piano as an adult and I am also a nature and mountain lover.
I am looking forward to meeting you in Tuscany!
An intimate experience
This retreat has limited spaces to maintain an individualized and intimate experience.
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