Retreats Beyond Dover founder Anthony Weaver outlines the thinking behind the specialist tour operator’s new ‘faith and music’ retreat to be held in the Alpine foothills of northern Italy We entered the Cathedral of Monreale in Sicily recently in the semi-darkness of late October to take our seats for a concert of medieval pilgrimage music, the “Cantigas de Santa Maria”, written by the thirteenth-century King of Castile, Alfonso el Sabio (Alfonso the Wise). Just before the music began, lights were switched on and the great mosaic face of Christ Pantocrator suddenly looked down in majesty from the golden dome high above. Monreale, a short drive from Palermo, was celebrating its 55th Week of Sacred Music, with works by Frescobaldi, Vivaldi, Handel, Bach, Nicol