Chapter Three: The Real Housewives of Sitges (Hold the Drama)
The view that started every morning
A villa above the sea, a chef with stories to tell, and the most reading we have ever done at a reading retreat.
More than once that week, someone looked up from the pool deck, took in the view, and said what the rest of us were thinking. This felt like our very own episode of Bravo's Real Housewives of Sitges. With a lot less drama, and not one flipped table.
They had a point. The villa sat in the hills above town, and from the infinity pool you could see Sitges laid out below, with the Mediterranean behind it. It is the kind of view that makes you put your book down. Briefly.
A reading retreat, taken literally
Sitges was the smallest group we have ever hosted, and it turned out to be the quietest too. A small group changes the rhythm of a retreat. There is less bustle, more stillness, and a lot more reading.
Two of our guests set the tone. When they signed up for a reading retreat, they took us at our word. They arrived with real, physical books in hand (several, actually) and got straight to it, some days on their own private balconies and other days on the deck beside the spectacular pool view.
The setting suited our retreat book, too. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón follows a boy and a forgotten book through the Barcelona of the 1940s, and we were reading it just down the coast from the streets where it is set.
A toast at golden hour
So the days belonged to the books. The evenings belonged to the dinner table, where the conversation got lively. And the dinner table belonged to Amanda.
And then there was Amanda
If the villa and the view were two of the stars of this retreat, Chef Amanda Cross was the third. She kept us very well fed, and no one left her table hungry.
Chef Amanda at work
She fed us stories too: her own escapades, plus a few from her book, Cava Queen. One evening, she gathered us around and walked us through making a proper paella, step by step. Dinner and a show.
By the last night, not one of us could name a favorite meal, so we did the only sensible thing and asked her to share a few of her recipes. If you are ever in Sitges and want to eat very well, find Amanda. And if you want the stories, pick up Cava Queen.
A town that has always made room
Not every hour was spent with a book. There were massages at the villa, beach time, and a wine tasting in town at Celler Hospital de Sitges.
Touring Celler de l’Hospital
The winery belongs to the town's centuries-old hospital, which was left a family's vineyards in 1935 on one condition: keep the local Malvasia grape alive. It has, and some of the wine's proceeds go back into caring for the community's elderly.
Among the Malvasia vines
A winery that looks after its neighbors is very Sitges. This town has a long habit of making room for people as they are. In the 1890s the painter Santiago Rusiñol settled here, a circle of artists and writers followed, and a fishing village became a bohemian one.
Through the Franco years, when much of Spain was tightly controlled, Sitges kept a quiet reputation as a place where people could be a little more themselves. Today it is one of the most welcoming LGBTQ+ destinations in Europe.
That history felt familiar to us. We built The Literary Escape on the same idea: every woman who comes through our door should feel expected, welcome, and at home. If you love books, you belong here. Sitges has been saying its own version of that for more than a century, which made it the right place for us to gather.
What Sitges reminded us
Every retreat teaches us something. Some chapters are loud, full of late nights and new friends. This one was quieter: a beautiful house, a very good cook, a long view, and time to read.
Sitges reminded us that a reading retreat can be exactly that, and that the quiet version is worth protecting. If that sounds like your kind of escape, we would love to save you a seat by the pool.
Goodnight, Sitges
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