My name is Nicola, I am a veterinarian and the owner of the farm. I live here with my two kids, my son Nicolò who is 14 and my daughter Giulia who is 12. My parents bought the house with the land 20 ago, and afterwards I moved here from Milan and started to rebuild the house and set up the farm. The farm is 85 hectares, 35 of grazing fields and 50 of Mediterranean forest. It faces the Mediterranean coast at an height of 200 meters and is10km from the sea. The climate is amazing with mild winters and breezy summers, and there are orange trees in the garden. I had my vet practice on stud farms all around Tuscany until a few years ago but now my own place takes about 80% of my working time. We provide breeding and boarding services to racehorse owners. Some mares come to the farm in the spring just for foaling and being inseminated. We currently have about 20 mares and 25 foals. The foals live at the farm for the first two years of their lives, until they go to auction or to the training centers. The busy period for foaling is from January to May, while from February to June we do inseminations and semen collection, and from July to September we focus on handling and training the yearlings. Besides horse farming we do a small bit of olive oil production. There are 230 olive trees spread in the horses’ paddocks, from which we produce olive oil in the range of 150 to 500 liters every season. Harvesting time is in October and November, but the trees need a lot of care and should be trimmed in March and April as well. I have a farm manager, Tommaso, on staff. He and his wife and daughter are Romanian and they live in an apartment above the main house that you see in the photos. Clara is the breeding manager, she is responsable of the horses and great with foals. She is french and speaks french, spanish and english.
Volunteers can assist with the care of the horses, including feeding, moving them between pastures, training the young, grooming, mucking out stalls, etc. We also need help with the olive trees, fencing, carpentry, land care, forestry, gardening, cooking, driving, and dog care (we have six dogs, mostly golden retrievers.) Accommodation can be in a private or shared room with a private bathroom or in a cute, rustic stone bungalow just outside of the main house. I cook lunch and dinner every day with some cooperation from helpers and we all eat these meals together. I cook mostly healthy, Mediterranean style food, but we are not strictly organic or vegetarian. I prefer to host one or two volunteers at a time, for periods of at least two weeks. I am looking for people who is at least 25 years old, who is good at working independently, and who is neat and organized. I enjoy sharing my house with volunteers but it is very important to me that it be treated with respect. If you find it difficult to keep your own space and shared spaces clean then this is probably not the right place for you. The house does not have a land line so my cell phone is available for important calls but if you will need to make regular calls the best idea is to buy a cheap cell phone or SIM card here. We have internet at the house that volunteers are welcome to use about twice a week for about two hours at a time, but I ask that you please try to stay within this limit. We live in a somewhat isolated area so if you do not have your own transport it is difficult to leave the farm. Cecina, the nearest commercial town, is about 20 km away, and the small village of Casino di Terra is 7kms away. Volunteers often come to Cecina with me to do errands or for fun activities but this depends on my schedule. We work hard here but we also love to relax and be playful and have a lot of fun.

Tuscanian coast

Horse help: feeding, training, moving, grooming, mucking out
Garden: vegetable garden, fruit garden, planting, seeding, growing.
Farm: fencing, building, restauring, fixing, trimming, cleaning, painting
House. help in the kitchen, grocery.

Italian, English, French, Spanish, Romanian

Stone bungalow for 2, private room with bathroom, shared room with bathroom

You can move from the farm independentely using our bikes if you are fit. Me or somebody of the staff moves from the farm almost every day, but you should adapt to our schedules. The area is great to visit. The sea is at 15 min by car, surroundings are full of art and hystory with ancient settlements of roman and etruscan, the very famous wine area of Bolgheri is nearby.

I AM LOOKING FOR FEMALE HELP IN JUNE!!!