A creative retreat in Venice, Italy with artist-led workshops and 5 nights in a historic Palazzo
Third Edition / July 2026Apply for a SpotJessica Zafra
Venezia, as it's said in Italian, has been an inspiration for the world's visionaries, sages, savants, and romantics for over 700 years. Venice is the city where Titian reinvented color, Vivaldi wrote the Four Seasons, Galileo first demonstrated the telescope, and a single printer invented both the paperback and italic type. These many years of creation and fabrication have given the city a certain confidence, an Italian je ne sais quoi, an attitude among artists that allows them to create and share their work with abandon. It's a spirit that dissolves fear, overcomes obstacles and invites freedom of expression. This is exactly what I intend for you to take away from this retreat.
The lagoon overflows with creativity and passion in every form. Beyond the famed Biennale and across its many islands, there are countless galleries, dozens of museums, and thousands of artists working in their studios. It's pulsing with a life force of young creative energy. People want to build something and be part of a community. On any given night you can find yourself at a talk on sustainability, a painting crit, a DIY rave on the beach, a fashion show in the streets. You just have to know where to find it. I know where to find it.
Over the past six years I have been blessed to build a life and a creative community here. My cup runneth over with love, lust, and admiration for this city. Venice is my soulmate. I care deeply about respecting its authenticity and thus I've worked hard to make sure this retreat gives back to the city in a meaningful way. I am partnering with a hospitality group that has been run by the same family for generations. The artists who lead the workshops have studied, built studios, and made their work here for years. The restaurants we'll dine in are family run and cook traditionally. We will be immersed in the glamour of the city, with the people who build it and continue its traditions.
It is an honor and a joy to invite you to the third edition of this retreat to share this city, its people, and its magic with you.
Ella Fitch
This retreat is designed for people who have something inside them that wants out. If you are between chapters, burned out on execution, starving for inspiration, or sitting on ideas you haven't let yourself act on yet, then this is for you.
We'll spend five days playing, learning, taking it all in, asking questions, getting in a trance, and doing what feels good. There will be artist-led workshops, exhibition visits, returns to nature, creative unblocking exercises, and opportunities to leap and let the net appear woven throughout the week. Fans of The Artist's Way, or those who have always wanted to do it, will get a lot out of these practices.
Very important: you don't need to be a working artist. You just need to show up with a beginner's mind and a willingness to play. Previous retreat attendees have been founders, project managers, archivists, designers, musicians, biz dev leaders, and everyone walked away with equally compelling outcomes.
You're between chapters. Something big is brewing. Venice will give you the space and the fuel to figure out what it is.
You build things for a living but you've lost touch with what lit you up in the first place. We'll fill you up and send you back teeming with ideas and plans to execute.
You have ideas you haven't acted on. You're afraid of not doing it right. We're going to work on overcoming what's holding you back and having creative audacity.
You have appreciated art from afar for years and you're ready to see what it's like to set your self expression free and be on the other side of the canvas.
We are partnering with By Romanelli to host the retreat in two of their incredible locations: Casa Flora, a contemporarily designed palazzo, and the adjacent Hotel Flora, a 17th-century palazzo. Both are equally magnificent.
By Romanelli is a boutique hospitality brand run by Gioele and Heiby Romanelli, built around a simple but rare idea: that a hotel can be a genuine expression of a city rather than a refuge from it. Through their properties, their publication Inside Venice, and their ongoing partnerships with Venetian artists and artisans, they are renewing what hospitality means while staying deeply faithful to the craftsmanship and traditions that make Venice what it is.
Inside Venice, their publication, is an editorial project that tells the city from the inside out, with interviews, guides, perspectives, and voices that describe Venice far removed from its stereotypes. It is about the people who make the city vibrant, creative, and alive.
I have been a fan of By Romanelli for years. Honestly, several articles in Inside Venice are responsible for friendships I now treasure. I would read about someone I admired, find them on Instagram, and reach out. Their values and mission are deeply aligned with mine. Partnering with them for this retreat is a literal dream come true.
Gioele himself will be joining us for a workshop on their ongoing project Imaginative Tourists, and a tour of the Casa Flora artist archive.
Casa Flora was conceived in 2015 by Gioele Romanelli and Diego Paccagnella alongside architect Matteo Ghidoni, a fully bespoke Italian-designed home built as a space of exchange, creation, and reflection. Its interiors reinterpret classic Venetian elements in a contemporary key: Rubelli fabrics, handmade Murano glass, green lagoon stone, briar wood doors, and furniture developed in collaboration with international design students.
Over time, Casa Flora has hosted workshops, editorial projects, artist residencies, and collaborations with some of the world's most interesting creative brands. Which is why it is perfect for us.
The Rooms
The three private bedrooms are designed around the characteristic colors of the lagoon. There are beautiful tapestries and side tables that transform into flower vases. Each room includes a dedicated reading area and a generously sized private bathroom that doubles as a small indoor garden. The bathrooms feature double terrazzo basins and two bathtubs, one fully functional and one designed to host interior plants, allowing the house to breathe naturally.
The Common Spaces
The living room, dining room and kitchen are where we will be having our group activities as well as our dinner party. The elements are stunning, the space is inviting and the views out the windows are epic. There is plenty of room for us all to lounge, eat, chat, draw, meditate. There's even a reading corner, and a curated library of art and design books selected by B-r-u-n-o, one of Venice's most innovative bookshops.
Run by the Romanelli family for over sixty years, Hotel Flora sits on one of Venice's most elegant streets, steps from St. Mark's Square and steps from Casa Flora. The building is a 17th-century palazzo with forty rooms, a velvet sitting room, and a lush inner courtyard garden that feels like a secret the rest of the city doesn't know about.
Artists have been finding their way here for decades. The walls and guestbooks hold the traces of those who came before. Artist Sophie Calle once posed as a housemaid at Hotel Flora, using her time here to make the work that became her celebrated book, The Hotel. That is the kind of place this is.
Four of our seven guests will stay here. You will have your own private room, breakfast every morning in the garden, and a base that puts all of Venice within walking distance.
Painting, sculpture, writing, architectural drawing, and foraging, each led by a Venetian artist who has spent their career making work in this city. Hands on and occasionally messy. No experience required.
Your own room at Casa Flora Venezia or Hotel Flora, both By Romanelli properties steps from each other. Breakfast included every morning at both properties.
Between workshops we'll spend time on exercises meant to blast through blocks and overcome perfectionism, woven throughout the week.
Each day we'll sit down with an artist over a meal and get to know them outside their studio. This is where the real conversations happen.
An evening on the water watching Venice turn gold, with snacks and drinks. An unforgettable moment.
Rialto, San Marco, the Grand Canal. The icons. We'll see all of them, on foot and by boat, and I'll show you what to look for.
Water taxis and ferries to move us through the canals, islands, and lagoon. Getting there is half the magic.
Venice has more art per square meter than almost anywhere on earth. We'll use it.
One of the world's great art events, with a knowledgeable guide at our side.
A tour of the Casa Flora artist archive and a workshop on their project Imaginative Tourists, a conversation about what it means to be a genuine visitor to a place rather than a consumer of it.
You'll leave a small work at Casa Flora, joining a growing archive of pieces made by guests. A CV credit placing your work in one of the world's great art cities, permanently.
A dedicated hour with Ella as your creative coach. Your practice, your blocks, and what you're building next.
Not included: Flights, travel insurance, and meals beyond breakfast. See the FAQ below for how we approach food on this retreat.
Each workshop is led by a Venetian artist who has spent years making work here. They are hands on and occasionally messy. No experience required. Designed for any level.
Food, memory, and words. Valeria is a cook, writer, journalist, and photographer, and her talents are endless. Together she will guide us through cooking a seasonal meal from her memoir-cookbook Veneto, and afterwards she'll teach us to write the prose of personal essays as we put together a piece on what we tasted, felt, and remembered from our meal.
Simone weaves performance, music, and visual storytelling into work that is as imaginative as it is immersive. His workshop is an invitation into the playful, untamed part of your creativity through mask-building, improvisation, and embodied expression. Or maybe something entirely different that day. You never know with Simone, but it never disappoints.
As the afternoon light softens across the canals, Cristina will teach us to capture Venice through drawing and watercolor. She'll show us the hidden gems and secret messages encoded into the city's architecture that most people walk past every day. You'll leave with a piece of the city in your hand. Literally.
Creative power couple Daria and Bogdan bring their practices together for a workshop that opens up how you paint sound and taste color in their iconic studio.
Venice's ecosystem is unlike anywhere else on earth. We'll explore it with a local forager, learning what grows in the salt marshes, the islands, and along the canal edges that you'd never notice on your own.
Gioele will take us through the archive of art created by guests such as Sophie Calle and Leon Radu during their stays at the properties. We will learn how the project Imaginative Tourists was put together and how our work will contribute to it.
Workshop times are subject to shift based on artist availability.
As part of our partnership with By Romanelli, each guest will create a small artwork during the retreat that joins the permanent Casa Flora archive — a growing collection of pieces left by guests, artists, and collaborators over the years.
It can be anything. Something made during the retreat or before it. Tiny or large. Writing, painting, a sketch from Cristina's workshop, a mask from Simone's.
With this you will have a permanent CV credit. Your work will live in one of the world's great art cities, in a collection alongside many other fantastic artists as part of By Romanelli's ongoing project "Imaginative Tourists".
Increases to €3,000 after May 1st
Book by 11:59pm ET on April 30th and pay the early bird price of €2,500. As of May 1st the price becomes €3,000. Our last retreats have sold out so apply soon to join this one!
Five nights in a palazzo in Venice. Five workshops with Venetian artists. Daily transportation, a sunset sailboat ride. Guided exercises and 1:1 sessions. A permanent place in a collection. An experience that will change how you see your work and yourself. What you are getting here is exclusive access, curation, and six years of relationships built in this city, packaged into five days so you don't have to figure any of it out yourself and have an experience that cannot be replicated.
These costs go directly into the pockets of the Venetians I am partnering with. The artists, the hospitality workers, the stewards of the city. This retreat has been carefully designed to give back to the city in a meaningful way.
Sharing a Room
If you'd like to attend with a friend and share a room, reach out and we can discuss pricing. Casa Flora has beautiful shared options and it can be a wonderful way to experience the retreat.
Accessibility
If the investment feels out of reach but this retreat is calling to you, please don't let that be the reason you don't come. Email me at hi@ellafitch.studio and let's talk through what options might exist for you to join us. I want the room to have the right people in it, and sometimes that means finding a way.
A Note on Expensing This
If you work for a company, this retreat may qualify as a professional development expense, many employers have budgets specifically for this and it is worth asking your manager or HR! If you're a freelancer or business owner, education, skill development, and professional retreats are commonly deductible business expenses in the US and many other countries. Speak with your accountant about whether this applies to your situation and you might be pleasantly surprised!
Ella created and guided us through not just a retreat, but a journey in Venezia that was nothing short of magical. If you're looking for something different from your day-to-day, something that inspires you, helps you unleash your inner artist, and allows you to disconnect and reconnect with what matters most then this retreat is for you.
It was my first time doing both a retreat and a creative retreat, and it's hard to imagine a better experience. Ella so effortlessly and uniquely weaves together the local essence, creative havens, and culinary experiences of Venezia into a deeply personal and communal journey.
Being in Ella's orbit is like being plugged into the center of where all creativity, arts, food, and community are all intersecting. Ella runs a beautiful retreat in Venice where she opens your world to all the wonderful people doing very cool things. You will leave inspired, buzzing with creative energy, and reconnected to purpose. Ella is a bright light; endless enthusiasm, warmth, and playfulness. Highly recommend this retreat!
Manuela Odell Product DesignerElla's Venice retreat was exactly the reset I didn't know I needed. Visiting artists' studios each day cracked something open in my brain that I'd been too busy to access. I came home so energized that we built a version of it into our company culture, and it's become one of my favorite things we do.
Matt Hassett Founder of Loftie
I am a creative producer, director, and coach living between Brooklyn, NY and Venice, Italy. For nearly two decades I have been helping brands and individuals make things: commercial campaigns, documentary films, music festivals, websites, apps, experiential events. The work is always the same: take a creative vision and make it real. Past clients and collaborators include Frank Ocean, Spike Jonze, Bjork, Google, Netflix, and the Guggenheim.
In addition to leading creative retreats, I teach a thirteen week course at Index NY on overcoming perfectionism and building the creative muscles to make work and the confidence to put yourself out there. I also work with people one on one: executives, founders, emerging artists, and independent creatives, on goal-setting, project execution, accountability, and building a sustainable creative practice. I package up these projects under Lover LLC.
I grew up in NYC in an Italian American family and I have the accent to prove it. I come from a long line of spiritual philosophers and creative educators. I incorporate their work and my study of Carl Jung into everything I do. I've been lovestruck by Venice since I first visited as a teenager. During the pandemic I took the leap and arrived on the steps of the train station knowing no one. By way of pure synchronicity and manifestation, I made the right friends and have continued to build a life here ever since. This will be the third creative retreat I have hosted in the city, and damn sure the best one yet.
We will be doing a lot of snacking everywhere we go and sometimes at the end of the day you're not craving a huge meal. I also like to give people the flexibility to join group dinners or to take the time to rest or continue creating. When we have group meals I will handle the checks and split it up at the end of the trip.
No. This retreat is for anyone who has a creative life, or wants one. You can be a founder or a dental hygienist, an executive or a project manager, a writer who hasn't made anything in years or a photographer looking to change their medium. Everyone is creative and everyone can access that part of themselves.
As part of our partnership with By Romanelli, each guest creates a small artwork during the retreat. It can be any medium, any size, any subject and that becomes part of the permanent Casa Flora archive!
Please do! I can help arrange accommodation extensions at By Romanelli or elsewhere in the city and can help you with your itinerary.
Fill out the form below. I review every application personally and respond.
I will work with you to make sure you are getting there in the most efficient way from where you're coming from. Venice's Marco Polo Airport has direct flights from most major US and European cities and there is a train station if you are traveling from elsewhere in Italy.
The 50% deposit is non-refundable. The remaining balance is fully refundable up to 60 days before the retreat.
Applications are reviewed personally. We'll have a chance to chat on the phone before you put any money down. If you have questions before applying, reach out: hi@ellafitch.studio