EPIRUS, GREECE
Meraki Collective
Fully Here, Fully Alive — Programs in Greek Craft, Culture & Table
Meraki Collective, founded by Anna & Eva, creates immersive cultural programs in the villages of Epirus, Greece. Rooted in living craft, seasonal food, and local culture, our programs invite you to step fully into this world: to harvest, bake, dance, explore monasteries and mountains, and share meals at tables where tradition is still alive.
Woven through each gathering is Eva’s work on human connection, communication, and self-awareness — not as a workshop, but as a natural part of how we live and gather together.
Whether it’s a few days or a week, you’ll leave changed. And you’ll carry something of this place with you long after you return home.
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october 9-12, 2026 · zitsa, epirus
Zitsa: Filoxenia Long Weekend
Three and a Half Days of Slow Food, Living Tradition & Self-Discovery in a Greek Village
DATES
October 9-12, 2026
DURATION
3 1/2 days, 3 nights
GROUP SIZE
5–12 participants
INVESTMENT
from €500
This is not a retreat from your life. This is an immersion into practices, rhythms, and connections that will come home with you — and stay.
It is a long weekend of living — really living, as a participant, not a tourist — inside a village that has been doing it for centuries. Open homes. Shared tables. Lessons that will find you again when life gets hard. Authentic good times.
At the center of it all is Kostas’ bakery — a small, warm space with dark wood shelves, rust-colored walls, and the kind of smell that makes you feel immediately at home. It’s a working bakery, a gathering place, and a piece of living village history all at once. Just next door, in our workshop space, the making happens across the weekend: Saturday brings a savory-and-sweet pita workshop, Sunday moves into trahana-making and traditional cooking, with Kostas’ sourdough running as a thread through both days. You’ll work with ingredients harvested from the land around you, alongside strangers who will become friends — and you’ll take home a beautifully printed recipe book to wow your family with your Greek cooking.
During our time together you may also harvest grapes and eat too many straight off the vine. You will sit under the stars while local musicians play and someone passes you something homemade, made from yiayia’s recipe that’s never been written down. You will learn things with your hands that your hands will never forget.
And woven through all of it — quietly, without a schedule — is the other kind of learning. The kind that only happens when you slow down enough to notice.
Here is the thing that nobody puts in the brochure: spending some days in close quarters with people you have just met — sharing meals, fumbling through folk dances, being covered in flour at 8am — is not always smooth. It is sometimes awkward. It can bring up things. The way you handle a moment of frustration, or find your footing with someone very different from you — this is where Eva comes in. Not with a schedule or a workshop, but with a quiet presence and a set of tools for clearer communication and coexistence — in real time, in the middle of the difficult moments — that meet you exactly where you are. You will leave richer than you arrived — with skills, perspectives, and relationships that don’t stay behind when you head home.
structure
Your Weekend, Day by Day
Here’s how the weekend unfolds:
FRIDAY
Arrival and settling in, any time from mid-afternoon. Find your room, wander the garden, meet the others slowly as they trickle in. As evening falls, we gather for a welcome dinner — introductions over Zitsa wine, the first stories of why everyone came, and a sense of the days ahead taking shape around the table.
SATURDAY
Mornings begin gently, with optional movement and a slow breakfast. Then into it: a savory-and-sweet pita-making workshop with a possible tour and tasting at a local winery, followed by a long lunch of everything you’ve made and more — tzatziki, Kostas’ sourdough, Zitsa’s famous sparkling wine. After a quiet afternoon rest, we reconvene for tea and a creative session with Eva, then dinner on the sheep farm — music, dancing, good company.
sunday
Morning movement and breakfast open the day, then hands into the work again: a traditional cooking workshop, making trahana from our family’s sheep’s milk alongside yemista and other classics, closed out with a long lunch. Afternoons are free to rest. In the evening, we walk up to the monastery and sacred forest for a creative session among the oak trees, then a light dinner and quiet reflection on the days behind us.
monday
One last gentle morning — optional movement, breakfast at your own pace, a final mobility session together, and time over coffee to exchange numbers and make plans to meet again. Then, parting words and departure.
what you’ll experience
Learn & Make & Live
The Pitas of Epirus
Epirus, the birthplace of Greece’s pitas. Here, pitas are the main plate (and the first take-away!) — with some salad, bread, tzatziki, and cheese, you have a full meal. Shepherds carried a version stripped down to its essentials — pita, water, bread — enough for a full day out on the mountain. On Saturday, we’ll make these iconic pies by hand — some with hand-stretched phyllo, others poured and baked like kasiopita, or built on a cornflour crust like blatsopita — using ingredients harvested from our farm that same morning.
Presence & Connection
Introduced throughout the weekend are gentle tools for presence, authentic expression, and genuine connection — with yourself, with others, with the moment. Not separate from the bread-making, the dancing, the farm visits, but part of them. You’ll paint on pebbles, wood, and watercolor paper — not to produce, but to discover what emerges when your hands are busy. You’ll receive a Meraki journal before you arrive. Eva holds all of it — quietly, skillfully, in the middle of real life.
Zitsa's Winemaking Heritage
Zitsa holds a PDO designation for its unique naturally sparkling wine — the same protected status as Champagne, though the wine itself is something entirely different, closer in spirit to a crisp, effervescent cider made from the white Debina grape. We may visit a local vineyard, and you’ll share the traditional homemade version at every meal — a taste of place that cannot be replicated elsewhere.
From Farm to Table
The sheep farm is at the heart of our Saturday evening — a light dinner under open sky, with the flock still grazing nearby as the sun goes down. Their milk becomes Sunday’s trahana — one of the many threads tying this land to what ends up on your plate. Soft music plays through the meal, and once the plates are cleared, live musicians take over — under the kind of dark that only comes without city lights above you.
practical details
Everything You Need to Know
DATES
October 9-12, 2026
3 1/2 days, 3 nights
LOCATION
Zitsa, Epirus, Greece — a mountain village in northwestern Greece, known for its wine, natural beauty, outstanding bakery, and preserved traditions
GROUP SIZE
5–12 participants. Intimate groups ensure authentic connection and personalized attention
INVESTMENT
From €500 per person. Shared-room discounts available — you don’t need to already know your roommate to opt in; we’re happy to help match you for the weekend
WHAT’S INCLUDED
Accommodation — 3 nights at Vadokeios Gi guesthouse, private room with private bathroom and balcony
Food and drink — all breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, Zitsa wine and other local wines at meals, plus 24/7 access to bakery staples on hand — eggs, fruit, cheeses, cold drinks, nuts, basic vegetables (tomatoes, onions, peppers, carrots), and pasta
Winery Visit —possible tour & tasting of a local Zitsa winery
Workshops and experiences — all ingredients, materials, and supplies for the pita-making and traditional cooking workshops and creative sessions, with instruction from Kostas, Eva, and local artisans
Keepsakes — a Meraki journal and apron on arrival; a digital recipe book and group photo album afterward
Care and support — dietary accommodations, pre-arrival travel planning support, a shared WhatsApp group, and Anna and Eva on-site throughout
getting here & extras
Getting to Zitsa — most guests arrive by car; if coming via Ioannina, a local bus runs four times a day, Monday–Friday, for roughly €2–3
Personal extras — anything you pick up on your own, like a coffee or snack from the village café or mini market during rest time
Who Thrives here
Is This For You?
This program is for you if…
- You hunger for genuine places — life as it's actually lived, not curated highlight reels.
- You want to make something with your hands — pitas, trahana, something that takes patience.
- You're drawn to places where tradition is still alive and ordinary people carry it forward.
- You're comfortable with a schedule that's structured but restorative — the activities are set, but lunches and dinners are built with room to linger if the conversation's still going.
- You thrive in small groups where the dynamic matters as much as the itinerary.
- You're ready for meaningful inner work woven into the weekend — not a therapy retreat, but honest and intentional enough that you might leave knowing yourself a little better.
This program is not for you if…
- You need a full schedule of famous landmarks, sightseeing buses, and guided tours.
- You're looking for a resort-style escape with spa days and poolside service.
- You want a premium holiday with a private chef and world-class gastronomy.
- You prefer the anonymity of a large group over the intimacy of a small one.
- You're looking for a wellness or fitness retreat with daily yoga, guided meditation, and massage.
- You thrive with a set itinerary, and spontaneous changes — whether it's a lunch or dinner that runs long because the table's still full of conversation, or a shift due to Epirus's notoriously moody weather — aren't quite your thing yet.
A Community That Continues
Ready to be Curious?
Each experience begins before you arrive and continues long after you leave. Prior to your arrival, confirmed participants connect through a shared online space, with guided questions and topics from your hosts, Anna & Eva. After your time in Zitsa, the conversation doesn’t end — the community remains active, sharing how these practices have integrated into daily life. We hope you can join us — it would be lovely to spend this time with you.