THE SPIRAL & THE SPIDER

A 6-Day Retreat Along the Mediterranean

Where Sufi Sema Meets Italian Tarantella

July 9 - 14, 2026 | Puglia, Italy

Join us in the ancient landscape of Puglia, where olive trees hold centuries of memory, and the earth still pulses with the rhythms of healing traditions.

The Spiral & the Drum is a unique retreat experience that brings together two sacred lineages that share a similar root: the Southern Italian Tarantella and the Sufi Whirling Sema Tradition.

ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE

For centuries across the Mediterranean, communities gathered to heal through music, movement, and trance. In the Sufi tradition, the whirling of the dervish is a prayer — a dissolution of the self into the divine. 

In Southern Italy, the Tarantella was a rite of healing — women stomping the earth, driving out venom, reclaiming wholeness through ecstatic rhythm.

These traditions share the same root: the body as vessel, the drum as medicine, the spiral as the path home.

The Spiral & The Spider brings together world-renowned frame drummer and Italian Tarantella master Alessandra Belloni, Puglian multi-instrumentalist and medieval music keeper Giovannangelo De Gennaro, Sufi Whirling Dancer & Teacher Francesca Ferah & LILA Founders Omar Aena & Amira Radwan, for an immersive six-day retreat at Elaÿa — a regenerative sanctuary nestled among olive and pomegranate trees in the south of Italy.

YOUR GUIDES & MUSICIANS

ALESSANDRA BELLONI

Frame Drum, Voice, Tarantella Master

Alessandra Belloni is internationally renowned as one of the world's foremost virtuoso percussionists on the Italian tamburello frame drum, with 45 years of fieldwork devoted to preserving Southern Italian folk music, dance, and healing traditions. Born in Rome, she is the Artistic Director and Founder of I Giullari di Piazza, Artists-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC, whose productions trace the Pizzica Tarantata from ancient Greek ritual to living folk medicine. She is the author of Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna and has designed a signature tamburello line for Remo.

FRANCESCA FERAH

Sufi Whirler & Lineage Holder

Francesca is a Sufi researcher, dancer, and founder of Soul Circle, carrying the living tradition of Sema into the world. With Italian and Bosnian roots, she followed her path to Istanbul in 2013, where she came under the guidance of Sufi Master Dr. Rahmi Oruç Güvenç who entrusted her with the mission of bringing Sema to the West. She fulfilled that trust in 2024 with the first Sema Gathering in Venice, continuing his caravan of music, movement, and remembrance.

GIOVANNANGELO DE GENNARO

Viella, Flute, Voice, Cornamusa, Medieval Instruments

Giovannangelo De Gennaro is a specialist in medieval music, founder and director of the Ensemble Calixtinus, and has performed alongside giants of world music including Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Michel Godard, and Vinicio Capossela. In his musical journey he has also worked with musicians from Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Iran, and beyond — making him a rare bridge between the sacred music traditions of East and West.

OMAR AENA & AMIRA RADWAN

Founders of LILA | Sufi Path | Oud, Voice & Sacred Movement

Omar Aena and Amira Radwan are the founders of LILA — a sacred arts organization dedicated to creating pathways to the divine through global devotional music and dance. As students of the Sufi path and practitioners of Sema whirling, their work is rooted in the living transmission of sacred tradition, approached with reverence, curiosity, and devotion.

EMILIA CIANCI

Our host at Elaÿa

Emilia is the in-house visionary, ritualist, and healing arts practitioner at Elaÿa. She has been tending to this dream for many years: a place to restore the sacred, to remember the old ways of regeneration, ritual and care. Elaya, for her, is a place to return to soul and to re-ensoul life. After years abroad, it feels meaningful to return to her ancestral lands and help this resurgence.

GET ALL PRICING & SCHEDULE DETAILS:

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RETREAT PROGRAMMING

Each day is woven around the ancient rhythms of body and soul:

  • Tarantella drumming and dance workshops rooted in the living tradition of Southern Italy 

  • Sufi Whirling, Chanting and Meditation practices

  • Afternoon Sohbet — sacred conversation and reflection 

  • Evening ceremonies weaving Sufi Sema Whirling and Tarantella into one living prayer

The retreat culminates in two peak ceremonies: a full Tarantella healing ritual and a Sema Sufi Whirling ceremony with live musicians  — a spiral of sound and movement that will carry you home transformed.

  • We gather, set intentions, and open the circle together.

    • Afternoon: Arrival & settling in

    • 6:00 PM: Welcome dinner — gathering around the table in true Mediterranean fashion

    • 8:00 PM: Opening ceremony — setting intentions, introducing the lineages, first circle

  • Through meditation, whirling, and Dhikr, we begin to turn inward.

    • 8:00 AM: Muraqaba — Guided Sufi meditation

    • 10:00 AM: Sufi Whirling Workshop with Francesca

    • 12:00 PM: Brunch

    • 3:00 PM: Dhikr with Francesca

    • 5:00 PM: Free time / rest / land

    • 7PM: Dinner

    • 9:00 PM: Meditation with Sufi Music with Francesca

  • The practice deepens and culminates in a full Sema ceremony at night.

    • 8:00 AM: Muraqaba

    • 10:00 AM: Sufi Whirling Workshop with Francesca

    • 12:00 PM: Brunch

    • 3:00 PM: Go Offsite

    • 5:30 PM: Free time

    • 7PM: Dinner

    • 9:00 PM: Sema Ceremony

  • We meet the Tarantella — its drums, its roots, and the trance it carries.

    • 8:00 AM: Muraqaba

    • 10:00 AM: Intro to Tarantella Dance

    • 12:00 PM: Brunch

    • 3:00 PM: Tarantella Drumming

    • 7PM: Dinner

    • 9:00 PM: Restful evening

  • Two ancient healing traditions converge in one transformative night.

    • 8:00 AM: Muraqaba

    • 10:00 AM: Tarantella Drumming + Dance

    • 12:00 PM: Brunch

    • 3:00 PM: Free time

    • 5:00 PM: Tarantella Healing Ceremony — a full ritual in the tradition of the Pizzica Tarantata, led by Alessandra Belloni and Giovannangelo De Gennaro

    • 7PM: Dinner

    • 9:00 PM: Combined Tarantella + Sema Ceremony

  • We close the container, carry the light and return to our lives.

    • 8:00 AM: Final Muraqaba

    • 9:30 AM: Closing circle & farewell breakfast

    • Departures throughout the day

*Program schedule is subject to change.

YOUR SANCTUARY

A sanctuary where ancient ways meet the needs of our time.

Situated on three hectares of land in Southern Italy, among old olive and pomegranate trees and just a few kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea, Elaÿa offers a space for practice, transformation, and refuge. Here, we explore ways of living in which humans can truly blossom — restoring connection with self, with one another, with the land, and with the more-than-human world. A place to cultivate a deeper relationship with life, to slow down, listen, and restore embodied wisdom.

Elaÿa is located 4km (2.5miles) from the town of Carovigno in the region of Puglia. Neighbouring is also Ostuni, famous for its white architecture and old town, Ceglie Messapica and Cisternino and Alberobello.

The closest airport is Brindisi (0.5h drive); the next closest is Bari (1.5h drive), and both have flights from all over Europe. There is also a train station in Carovigno with trains coming from Rome.

Learn more about Elaÿa

JOIN US IN PUGLIA

Space is intentionally limited to ensure an intimate, immersive experience.

RESERVE YOUR SPOT

LILA TESTIMONIALS

  • There are no words to describe how nourishing and expanding this Journey with Lila Series Tours was. Firstly the accommodations, food , and travel provided were all exceptional. Most amazingly this was a journey of the heart, of participants and experiencers , not of tourists and intellectual accumulators. We became an international family of joyous participation from whatever varied levels of exposure we had had previously to Sufi culture. I am deeply grateful and astoundingly enriched by this journey. I will never be the same. Thank you , Mahalo, Tesekkur ederim!

    Sarah M

  • The trip was magic. All around us, with us in every way. Magic that awakened dormant seeds and brought to life love, laughter and deep connection. I know I was deeply touched and I believe everyone was deeply touched in some way. Thank you for making this happen.

    Kelley J.

  • Omar and Amira and the team in Turkey did a wonderful job. The community of open-hearted people that journeyed together to Turkey made the trip amazing for me. It gave me a sense of being beyond time and place, which is perhaps the goal of all spiritual experience, connecting to eternity. The semah in cappadocia under the moonlight, the joining a dhikr meditation in Konya with a community that has been doing dhikr together there for decades, these are the experiences that were grounding , spiritually elevating, shaking the dust off of the eyes of my heart as Mevlana might say. The trip was amazing. 10/10 stars.

    Yousef Z

  • “My experience in Morocco was thrilling, authentic and deep. Omar and the guides did an impeccable job curating the experience for us, and above all that, staying present and attentive throughout every step of the journey. I’d recommend this experience for anyone! Particularly those looking to explore an enchanting place in the company of deep souls, who enjoy traveling within a group that feels like home, and who feel called to touch and taste the essence of a place that rests beneath the TripAdvisor seafoam on the surface”

    Emily S.

  • “I can't fully express how fun, adventurous and immersive the trip to Morocco was.

    Traveling through the country's cities, shores, the Sahara desert and the Atlas mountains in a van with 16 semi strangers, we explored such a wide range of what this country has to offer with a focus on Gnawa music; which was incredibly connecting and heart opening.”

    Edyta H.

  • “From the heart: This wasn't just a tour -- it was a total immersion into the rich cultural, musical, and spiritual gifts that Morocco has to offer. I feel so grateful to have had so many amazing new experiences there. Including a full-on Lila ceremony, which was one of the most transcendent experiences of my life.”

    Simi M.

  • “The kind of journey you’ll remember for a lifetime. Curated with the help of local insiders, the team carefully planned an itinerary of authentic cultural activities, musical gatherings, healing modalities, educational opportunities and leisure time to discover breathtaking historic sites. The accommodations are comfortable, food is delicious, and overall, their passionate team does a great job with complex logistics. A genuinely respectful approach, and constant communication, ensures the group feels safe and honors the heritage we are exploring; while sharing the experience with enthusiastic locals. I would highly recommend this trip for anyone looking for a conscious group travel adventure at the intersection of history, music, culture and dance.”

    Beatriz Z.

  • “The best trip I've had in my whole life. Masterfully organized and curated”

    Carlos M.

  • "This trip enriched my life, made it fuller, and will stay with me forever."

    Sallie S.