Sportiva Retreats

Sportiva

Sportiva comes from an Italian exclamation — “Ah sei sportiva!” — jokingly used to describe a certain practical, yet virtuous and high-performance attitude toward life.

It’s a way of being. One that follows the pleasure of living freely while maintaining discipline.
So, beyond competitive sports, a Sportiva leads a high-quality life: she takes care of her nutrition, her rest, and her circle. She reads up on the best health rituals to follow, and knows how to tell science from urban myths. She moves well through the world because she learns how things work.

Values like sportsmanship, respect for others, the ability to deal with discomfort, and resilience shape her spirit and prime her for whatever life throws at her.

Growing up in Italy and living a certain lifestyle, I’ve heard this exclamation many times. So I named my company after it, because it resonates.

And since my life is getting interesting now that I’m approaching 30, I finally find myself liberated from my early 20s’ paranoia of caring too much about what people think. I feel ready to give voice to something that’s been sitting inside me for years.

So, I set myself a goal:
n the coming years, I’ll write about this Sportiva way of living that more and more women are choosing to embrace. I’ll talk about the topics closest to my life — like sports (which have pulled me out of dark places when I was working, studying, or worrying too much), health (mental, physical and sexual), relationships, friendships, nutrition, societal constructs, business, and whatever else feels relevant to women who want to live better, clearer lives — across ages, climates, and professions.

I’ve realised my radar is extremely sensitive to this kind of information nowadays. I pick up something new almost every day. The issue is that I write these insights down everywhere: on three different journals, a WhatsApp chat with myself, my Notes app, my boyfriend’s WhatsApp thread, saved posts on Instagram, and I collected a sea of screenshots across devices.

You and I both know that this is a chaotic, dysfunctional (and not very Sportiva) way of storing knowledge.

So I’ll do myself a favour and start putting it all here (in a more accountable, public space) to discipline and tidy up my thoughts as I learn about our bodies, our minds, and the world around us. At the end of each year, I’ll look back and track which topics I kept circling back to — the patterns that say something about how my identity is evolving (yes, we’re spiritual too).

Another reason for doing this?
To connect with women like me.
Women who have the same curiosities, same lifestyle, same frustrations and highs. I want us to have honest conversations. To trade advice, research, reflections, support. To tackle hard-to-speak-about topics, and explore the new kinds of lives women are now brave enough to build.

And finally, I want to say thank you.
To the many people who, from a young age, introduced me to sport, a healthy lifestyle, nutrition, curiosity, travel, and an overall way of living that made me feel strong. Whether they’re still in my life or not — this is built on their influence too.

Let’s fwaking go.