6 Day Silent Mandali Experience – Mandali Retreat Center, Quarna Sopra

The 6 Day Silent Mandali Experience is a silent meditation retreat at Mandali Retreat Center in Quarna Sopra, in the Verbania province of Italy. It is built for people who want a restorative week of quiet, movement and meditative practice, with room to move at their own pace and reconnect with themselves. It is run by Mandali's in-house team rather than a single guest teacher.

What to Expect

The Mandali Experience is the centre's ongoing in-house programme. Mandali describes it as a restorative retreat of three to seven days that offers a connection to self at a flexible pace, through movement and meditative practices. This edition keeps the same foundation and holds it in silence for six days.

Silence changes the character of a retreat. Without conversation to fill the gaps, attention tends to settle on the body, the breath and whatever arises in the practice itself. The flexible pace of the programme suits that: it is meant to be a gentle, supportive container rather than a demanding schedule.

Mandali offers its retreats in three kinds. The standard Mandali Experience is the core in-house programme. Mandali Experience Special editions add a creative layer, with workshops on music, movement or connecting with the elements. Themed Retreats are led by expert teachers and go deeper into a specific teaching, from the Path of Love to non-duality to Buddhism. This retreat belongs to the first kind: the core programme, held in silence.

The silent format is a regular part of Mandali's calendar, offered in several lengths, including three, five and six days. The six-day version gives the most time to settle into the quiet.

The Setting

The retreat takes place at Mandali Retreat Center in Quarna Sopra, a village in the province of Verbania (VB), Italy. Mandali also publishes information on its rooms and on travel advice for reaching the centre, which is worth reading before you arrive.

Before You Go

This is a silent retreat, so expect to keep silence for the full six days. The pace is flexible and the practices are movement-based and meditative, which makes the programme a fitting place to begin a silent practice as well as to continue one.

Mandali's retreats run in English, and some are offered in Italian, Dutch or other languages. This edition is listed in English.