Escape to Shape | Travel

Well known for it’s pristine beaches  and magnificent setting where the Adriatic and Ionian Sea’s meet , Puglia is one of  Southern Italy’s most prized treasures.  It’s old World charm and landscape make for a popular backdrop and setting for a variety of novels and films.

Films

The Passion of the Christ

The Omen

The Nativity Story

La Lupa

The Star Maker

Novels

Christo si e fermato a Eboli by Carlo Levi

Head Over Heel by Chris Harrison

Casa Rossa by Francesca Marciano

Blood, Bones and Butter” by Gabrielle Hamilton – Gabrielle is the chef and owner of Prune in NY….part of the book revolves around her experiences and influences of being at her husbands family villa in Puglia

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco- Part of this intellectual mystery is set in a castle in Puglia _also made into a movie starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater

Long referred to as “The Island of the Gods”, Bali is a natural paradise. With a culture deeply rooted in tradition, spirituality and the arts, Bali provides a perfect backdrop for many books and even a few films.

TO READ

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

A Little Bit One O’clock: Living with a Balinese family  by William Ingram

A House In Bali by Colin McPhee

A Short History Of Bali: Indonesia’s Hindu Realm by Robert Pringle

Night of Purnama  by Anna Mathews

The Last Paradise  by Hickman Powell

Revolt in Paradise  by K’tut Tantri

Dancing Out Of Bali by John Coast

The Painted Alphabet by Diana Darling

Green Mangos & Lemongrass: Southeast Asia’s Best Recipes From Bangkok to Bali by Wendy Hutton

TO SEE

Eat, Pray, Love staring Julia Roberts

Road to Bali starring Bob Hope & Bing Crosby

Catherine Gleason is a young, successful women living in New York City, who offered to submit an entry on her personal experience traveling with Escape To Shape. Many thanks, Catherine!

I don’t know how else to describe Escape to Shape other than to say it’s like going to stay with your incredibly cool sister and her boyfriend in an exotic city for a week where they know everyone and every thing that’s worth knowing.  I’ve now done two of their trips (Cartagena and Marrakech) and while each one is different and unique to the location, there are some staples: a beautiful house, amazing food, great yoga, a packed itinerary, and fantastic company.  And despite the fact Erica and Francesco put a ton of effort into making sure each of their trips are flawless and that they’ve secured only the best of the best of everything, you’d never know it as a guest – they make everything seem just that easy.  Looking for a good spa in town?  They’ve been to a great one – should they make you a reservation? Want a hotel recommendation for your extra night?  There is a perfect one right in town and they know the owners.  Decided you want to take the afternoon away from the group and do some shopping?  They’ll get a driver to take you.  Want to do dinner in town one night? They know just the perfect spot – and when you get home, you’ll see it’s given five starts in every magazine.

The locations for Escape to Shape are always a big draw for me, but at the end of the day it is always really important to me who I travel with – after all what good is the location, if your company is aweful?  The only thing I can say is that so far I’ve met a number of incredibly smart, accomplished and adventurous women (yes, both of the trips I did were all women) from all sorts of backgrounds.  I’ve met women in finance, non-profit, law, consulting, design and decorating and each has her own fascinating story to share.  Most of the women come on their own, although the mother/daughter combo seems to be fairly common as well.  Whether you come alone or with a group though, I think the type of person who comes to a trip like this is very inclusive and if you’re on your own, you won’t feel ever feel like it.

Now about the “Shape” part…  this originally scared me – a lot.  I was a afraid I’d spend the entire week starving, so as embarrassed as I am to say this, I’ll admit I snuck a few snacks in my suitcase, just in case…  Luckily for me, Erica’s theme when it comes to the food part seems to be more about moderation and portion control, rather than starvation.  I’m not going to lie, there were definitely a couple of times when I would have killed for a piece of chocolate, but there were always healthy snacks lying around if we were hungry.  Some of the women seem to take the heath part of the trip very seriously, while others much less so.  As with everything else on the trip, it’s up to you which side you fall on…

Speaking of optionality, while every activity on these trips is completely 100% optional, there are some things not to be missed.  In each location Erica and Francesco arrange for the group to enjoy some of the local attractions.  In Cartagena, my favorite day was when we took a lava bath in a volcano followed by a scrub down by some locals in the near-by river.  I’ve never heard so many grown women giggle!  And in Marrakech it was a daylong hike through the Atlas mountains – complete with home-cooked French fries – that did it for me.  But really the stories I remember most were the unplanned things that happened.  There was the boat ride when we got stuck in a storm that left all of us huddled under a small canopy laughing as we tried to keep dry.  There was the rogue masseuse which spurred hours of discussion around the dinner table.  There was the guide who surprised us with a “Happy Congratulations” cake his mom had made for us.   There was an impromptu visit to a school in a small Moroccan village.  Each of these experiences is why I do these trips.

I signed up for my first Escape to Shape on a whim, and I am so happy I did!  So far I have been able to explore two fantastically exotic cities that I wouldn’t have otherwise had the nerve to travel to by myself and I’ve found the perfect balance of luxury, health and adventure that I know will always include a great group of people!

Along with its rich history, fertile soil and magnificent Sicilian cuisine, many great writers and poets have roots to this breathtaking island. The contribution to the arts has been overwhelming and the films bore from this region have gone on to win countless awards. Below you will find a few classics, ideal to provide you with inspiration and insight into the beautiful island of Sicily.

Literature:

The Godfather- Mario Puzo

Bagheria- Dacia Mariani

The Council of Egypt- Leonardo Sciascia

The Leopard, The Siren- Guiseppe di Lampedusa

Films:

The Godfather

The Big Blue

The Leopard

Il Postino

Cinema Paradiso

Divorce, Italian Style

The reason for this is that Pilates improves your posture by strengthening and stretching the muscles that support your spine. The result is powerful, long, lean muscles and catlike control. It’s no wonder celebrities, dancers, and athletes are devotees—and you can take advantage of this Pilates magic too! Let’s look at how it all happens.

Gravity

Most of a Pilates workout takes place with your spine laid flat, either on your back or tummy. Joseph Pilates purposely used gravity in this way to correct the imbalances that make us slouch and shrink from being upright. Once the body is stretched out on the floor, the method then challenges the muscles that support the spine by lifting the legs, pumping the arms, rolling up, rolling down, twisting, arching, bending, etc… As a student of Pilates, the key here is to anchor your body to the floor where it touches and to stretch away from it everywhere else. You’ll create opposition in your muscles to make them strong and lean.

Powerhouse

Another thing you’ll notice right away during a Pilates workout is your core muscles; Mr. Pilates called this area your “Powerhouse” to illustrate the idea of where your strength should come from. To be specific, the muscles of the Powerhouse are your abs, low back, inner thighs and buttocks—basically the muscles that support your spine. By creating a strong center in your body you will see loads of benefits, including:

• Increased height – As we go through life, our upright posture and habits allow gravity to compress our spine, leading to a loss in height. When you practice Pilates, your muscles strengthen and lift you up again. I’ve seen clients regain a full inch in height—the change can be that dramatic.

• Better flexibility – Each and every exercise in Pilates creates length and tone in your muscles. However, you can’t just go through the motions. To get the best results from your workout, you really have to “squeeze the juice out” out of each exercise. Take Spine Stretch Forward for example. First you inhale and stretch up to your maximum height, spine lifted as if your back is against a wall. When you begin to reach forward, exhale fully, engage your legs, flex your feet and pull your belly back to make your spine stretch as much as possible. When every last drop of air has been expelled from your lungs, inhale to roll back up, articulating each vertebra to lift yourself even taller than before.

• Increased brain function – Pilates is different than many other forms of exercise because it requires the mind to pay attention to what you are doing. So instead of zoning out to a TV show on the Stairmaster, you focus on your body. Research shows that when required to think about how you are moving, your brain cells grow at a faster rate and your nervous system creates better connections throughout your body.

• Grace and control – Joseph Pilates based much of his method on the powerful grace that animals exhibit. Pilates will improve your coordination, and your awareness of the way you move, until one day with regular practice, you’ll find yourself able to move with natural ease and control without thought. This is the ultimate goal of the Pilates method.

• Reduced back pain – When the muscles of the spine strengthen up and lift the vertebra away from each other, many people find their aches and pains simply disappear. There are many reasons behind this—less pressure on nerves, better lubrication of the joints, and an increased awareness of the habits that lead to pain in the first place.

• Less illness – Pilates improves circulation in the body tremendously, especially to the vital organs. The first exercise in the series, The Hundred, acts like a water pump flushing the blood through the body like an ‘internal shower’ as Joe put it. Having healthy circulation carries away toxins and allows the immune system to function at its best, similar to the way a healthy ecosystem in a pond works. If the pond becomes stagnant, too much algae grows and makes it all gunky and unbalanced, same with our bloodstream.

• Better sex – Since Pilates brings vital strength and circulation to the torso and pelvis, it preserves and even increases function to sex organs.

Beyond the physical benefits, one of the most rewarding changes I see in people as they practice Pilates is confidence. They might have started with the wish to ‘fix’ something about their body that they didn’t like. Along the way to the fix, they forget what it was they were unhappy about and begin to appreciate how good it feels to fully inhabit the body they were born with. It’s exciting to be able to use your body to it’s fullest potential and when you’ve got vibrant health, looking great is simply a bonus.