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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
1 May 2025
Reply rate
76.7 %
Usually responds within 10 days
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Details
Description
Since I have to manage our 2 ha’s property on my own there is generally spoken enough work for the year round, except from the winterperiod. We mostly spend our winters in Holland. This year, 2024, from 10 December up to mid February/early March, we cannot have workawayers.
We, Willem and Edith, are two former Dutch judges who changed tracks in 2008. After more than 30 years working for the public interest, we wanted to dedicate ourselves to another passion, arts. We have always had a wide interest in arts. We searched more than 3 years to find the ideal spot in Italy and started a centre for creative and culinary courses.
We are located on a historical site on a distance of 6km from the village of Ficulle. 4km white/dirt track.
You can find the tracks of the Etruscans who lived here 3000 years ago. The caves which they scarved are still in use, for example as communal kitchen. Stunning views up to Orvieto's cathedral.
No visible neighbours. Silence apart from sounds of nature: birds, frogs, toads are oly a few examples. You might see squirrels,foxes,porcupines, wild boars. Plenty of fruit trees(picking allowed). Dazing smells of lovely flowers, several ponds with waterlillies and lotus.
There are loads of possibilities for your free time: 'dolce far niente',walking,rambling,biking,horsbackriding,sightseeing,swimming,
sailing. Several swimmingpools in de neighbourhood.
Lakes: Trasimeno,Corbara,Bolsena.
Historical towns:Orvieto,Todi,Città delle Pieve,Perugia,Assisi,Cetona,Montepulciano,San Casciano dei Bagni,Bolsena,(città)Bagnoreggio.
Etruscan necropolis+archeological sites.
Sculpture parcs,Museums,wine,olive oil,delicious regional traditional food.
Rome 1 hr. Florence 1,5 hrs. by train. Both coasts appr. 2hrs. by car.
Living here for more than 15 years we got to know the area and the people pretty well. We are most willing to guide you to secret places which you would not have found on your own.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Help with Computers/ Internet
House sitting
Interests
Movies & TV
Politics / Social justice
Events & social
Sustainability
Self development
Culture
Performing arts
Cooking & food
Gardening
Plant care
Music
DIY & crafts
Books
Art & design
Fitness
Team sports
Yoga / Wellness
Nature
Camping
Mountain
Winter sports
Water sports
Outdoor activities
Hiking
Cycling
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
- International cultural, historic, political and whatever exchange
- enjoying good meals, having interesting conversations, serious but with humor and laughter too:)
- gardening, both in the decorative and the vegetable garden, in terms of (re)setting up plots
as well as maintainance (weeding, cutting, pruning, planting etc.)
- maintenance of dry stone walls
- building your strength by heavy works, like dragging with wood, soil etc. In the olive picking season working on the flexibility of your muscles (climbing trees)
- cooking
- making jams and chutneys
- painting
- building (in case we have building works)
- making mosaics (if we have a mosaic project)
and more and more....:)
Help
Depending on the maturity we are going to pick olives in the end of October/ first week of November.
We are surrounded by a parc of 2 ha's. We have loads of plants, bushes, trees. So there is a lot of work to do, e.g. grass mowing, weeding, pruning, planting, making cuttings ecc. Especially in spring, early summer and autumn a lot of tasks has to be done. For these periods we are looking for people with a real passion for and experience on gardening. In autumn i.a. picking olives is an important item.
Maintenance on old stone walls, steps, pathes ecc. can also be done during the summer and winter. Work on the vegetable garden has to be done almost all year round, apart from the winter. Nevertheless most of the tasks has to be done in springtime.
Besides the house where the owners live, are there several other buildings, which constantly are in need of maintenance, like painting, sometimes restoring things that are broken, light building projects ecc. ecc.
With a view to the work and the accommodation we prefer a couple as helpers. We ask workawayers to join us for at least one entire week.
What we need are people with a passion for gardening and some technical skills. Driving licence and car are preferable.
Languages
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Italian: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
French: IntermediateThis host offers a language exchange
Being interested in other people and cultures it goes for itself that we are interested in (other) languages. Being able to communicate with people from other cultures make one better understand and widens one's view on the world...
Accommodation
If the apartments are not rented out, we can offer you one of our apartments with fully equipped kitchen, bathroom and separate bedroom. Although there is central heating, we ask you to use the woodstove, especcially now, since the energy prices are sky high.
In case the apartments are rented, we have on offer a small studio, with a 140cm bed, a shower and a small sink. Toilet and washbasin in a separate space. Private terrace with stunning views.
Of course we will eat together every now and then, but you might like to have your own privacy. Therefore you can use the kitchen in your apartment or the communal kitchencave for your cooking. It goes for itself, that you can use the vegetable garden and fruits from the trees.
What else ...
The 2-ha's parc is located on a stupendous spot, surrounded by nature. Magnificent views, heavenly smells, no neighbours, wildlife, silence. There is a house where the owners live, an apartment building , a small studio, sheds and several caves, made by the Etruscans. Some of the caves are semi-habitable: one is in use as a kitchen, another contains some showers and toilets and a laundryroom. We restored another one in 2016; it is a beautiful place now for mutliple use like: small gatherings, assemblies, concerts etc. We ourselves will use it as a studio for our creative works as well.
Our place is offered as a space for creative and culinary courses; when free, the accomodations are for rent (without a course) as well.
We make efforts to respond everybody, usually on Wednesday. Our response rate always has been rather high, we used to respond within one day. Since summer 2022 we had an still have heavy times, which doesn’t leave much opportunity to work on the computer. Since then my response rate has got down very much, unfortunately.
We would appreciate it very much if you try to distinct yourself in a positive way and simply answer our messages, like we do yours. This means that you even let us know that you are no longer interested.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have done everything to create a good internet connection. Somebody even has succesfully given leadership trainings on line.
Space for parking camper vans
You have to drive carefully on the dirt road, but nodoby has to have insurmountable difficulties to get in here
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Feedback (27)
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Amongst the more creative things are making a herb spiral and a complete renewed set-up of the pavement… read more
Because of our personal circumstances we were a bit late. The harvest should have been done earlier; after a storm many olives had fallen down already. Nevertheless i decided to harvest what was still on the… read more
The work… read more
Immediately from day one they showed themselves as excellent… read more
At the moment Dana is a ' searching soul', such a tipical young adult who is looking around what life has to offer to her and what her role should be. She is… read more
Initially Saskia seems to be a bit shy, but after a few days you will discover that she is a serious young adult, fully aware that she has learn loads… read more
One of… read more
Edith y Willem para empezar son un matrimonio excepcional, cuando me case quiero un matrimonio así.
Este workaway fue una nueva experiencia para nosotros ya que no sabíamos de jardinería pero igual ellos nos dieron la oportunidad y creyeron en nosotros y lo logramos, tienen una casa con 7 etapas preciosa, se respira paz y tranquilidad, con… read more
They have been at our place for different periods: Nigel appr. 2,5 weeks and Angie one week. Apart from working in the garden, Nigel also took over our roles towards (paying) guests during our ten days stay in Holland. In that perod he was on his… read more
In the meantime Christine has been busy picking quinces, making… read more
The place itself overwhelmed me completely; the beautiful nature, the stunning view from the little cozy cottage, the smells of herbs everywhere, the organic pool, the tranquility.
I enjoyed working in the garden removing… read more
As far as it concerns us, we are happy to welcome you some… read more
Inspite of the enormous age difference with us and another workawayster,… read more
The weather didn't cooperate very well, when he was around: too hot, too dry.
That did't hold him back from working. He started rather early to use the less warm hours. He did mainly general garden maintenance work and some planting, which went well surprisingly enough. Most plants… read more
My mom Gabriela flourished by working in the wonderful garden, for my part I was a bit more lazy compared to her. Nonetheless we could both enjoy the fantastic food. There is always enough work and you’ll never get bored which is great! The nature in the area is insane, you have no… read more
Anna turned out to be a real topiary artist; she trimmed and formed a huge Viburnum and made a kind of palace out of a laurus.
They both tried to save a large maze of box, totally eaten by the box moth, bit there was… read more
They worked hard, effective and steady on, being the most pleasant people to hang around you. We have had interesting and funny conversations, they mixed very well with the Italian swimming pond guys… read more
They were keen to assist us with the work as well as our free… read more
We were supposed to stay 2 weeks and ended up staying another 2 as house sitters.
As every work away is different and the first days you need to figure out what to expect from each other we soon found out that we found a absolutely great place with 2 people that
are really enjoying the live, appreciating the work you do… read more
They turned out to be hard workers, doing a variety of chores, e.g. grass mowing, planting, cleaning, making a start with the preparation of a plot for the installation of a swimming pond (removing bushes) etc.
Remarkable was their excellent and loving care… read more
We experienced Magdalena, Fee, as a friendly helpful young lady. She never has been lazy or reluctant to do chores which we asked her to do. She also fitted in… read more
Please accept our apologies that it took us so long to give you our feedback on your stay last April. After that we went to Holland for my hipsurgery (i`m running around like a deer again!) As you know. So quite another atmosfere...Back in our place end of June we constantly have been working and completely forgotten to… read more
Edith and Willem are genuinely lovely people, generous and big hearted!
We worked hard while we were with them but always felt that our efforts were appreciated.
Willem would often track us down and insist we stop… read more
We can recommend Kristine and Matthew. Although they only stayed four days, they have been excellent workawayers. Matthew helped us many steps forward getting rid of an enourmous load of wood, meanwhile doing his excercises: he ran uphill with havy logs under his arms...Kristine… read more
Willem is always lots of fun cracking jokes and giving kind encouragement.
Edith can get into some great conversations about everything under the sun which made it interesting and fun while we… read more
They have stayed with us in Umbria almost 4 weeks (May/June 2014) and they have proven theirselves as hardworking, reliable and extremely helpful. Even excellent workers sometimes make mistakes, but Alicia and Ben are most willing to learn from their mistakes.
They have been working in the (vegetable)… read more
They share their interesting and funny experiances in Italy and they were so generous to take us on sight seeing/cultural trips too!
The work is very nice, Edith learned me how to make jam :) and Olive picking was a Real nice… read more
They visibly enjoyed the olive picking and other garden works. The weaving works was their idea and they did a great job on it. Our fence looks… read more
The work was great too, we helped with the olive harvest, weaving Olive-wood fences and a… read more
He worked hard and well, but he needs a lot of guidance in simple 'living' ( not to make a mess of his room, being clean on himself and his environment). Some common (European?) middle class table manners might add great value as well.
Charles has been with… read more
