Help out in the countryside near Udine, Italy

Details

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  Description

  Dear volunteers, my name is Nicola, I'm 32 and I live (and grew up) in a farmhouse in the not much known north-eastern corner of Italy, Friuli.
  
  I opened my first host profile in 2018, when I was helping my dad running his free-range pigs farm. During that time I had the luck to host some amazing volunteers, and even tho it feels like ages ago I still keep great memories of that experience.
  Nowadays things have changed a bit: my dad is not around anymore, I am not keeping as many animals as we used to do back then, and the place is not run as a proper "productive" farm anymore. In the past few years I have been living between Venice, where I did my master, and here, where I had been working as a librarian. In 2025 I also left for a 9 months trip all the way to Central Asia, and now I am back again, and looking forward for the next spring to start working on some new projects for this place! :) And also to host some new volunteers to share the life at the farm with!

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Languages

  

  Hitchhiking

  

  History

  

  Gardening

  

  Drawing & painting

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Books

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Nature

  

  Mountain

  

  Hiking

  

  Cycling

  

  Camping
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  There's much to learn about this area and its history and culture. We're in Italy but maybe not as you learned to expect it, people here even speak our own regional language, and food, ways of being and traditions are quite different.
  
  I'm very happy to share my house and to provide a welcoming place for you to stay. I travelled as a volunteer myself in the past and I know how it is :) You will have all the privacy you need, in your room or in the big garden, walking around, borrowing our bikes... but I'll be also happy to spend time together, cooking meals, chatting, driving you around and showing our beautiful area.
  I will also be very interested in learning about your background and culture. After all, one of the reasons why I decided to host is to keep meeting travellers from other places in the world also while I'm not travelling myself!

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  Help

  In general, during the warm months there's always a lot of mantainance work to do, mowing the grass, keeping brambles at bay... We also have 40 chickens that we keep for the eggs, which people come to the farm to buy, and they need to be taken care of. Plus, once you're here we will think of things you can help me with, like doing some cleanings, and other gardening and general mantainance stuff.
  Another main project that we started in 2024 was the conversion of 2,5 hectares of arable land into permanent semi-wild meadows. In order to do so, we collected seeds from many different species of local wild flowers and we made seedbeds for each of them. So during the summer we need to take care of the plants and collect the seeds when it's time, in order to store as many of them as possible for spreading in the future meadow.
  
  Normally the agreement has been more or less like this: 4 hours per day with 1 day off (24 hours per week) or 5 hours with 2 days off (25 hours), in exchange for accomodation and food, taking turns in preparing meals depending on my working hours. I am not vegetarian, but in general I try to not buy and cook so much meat for myself. This means I will be happy to go full vegetarian for the time you'll be here.
  
  Over this year I will most probably be working on a full time job, so I will not be able to spend as much time with the volunteers as I used to do the other times.
  I will be home during the weekends, so we can work on the main projects around the farm then, and I will leave you with some minor daily tasks for the rest of the week, when you will also have your free days :) Also, for this same reason, it would be very nice if you could think about preparing the meals during the workdays as part of your tasks! And I will share back some italian cousine during the weekends and some evenings :)

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Italian: Fluent
  Catalan: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  You'll have your own room with a bunk bed (I don't hate couples, that's just the only spare bed I had in the attic!). This is downstairs in the same part of the house where I live. You'll have your private toilet downstairs and for showering you'll use my bathroom upstairs. We will also share the kitchen.

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  What else ...

  The farm is surrounded by a lovely countryside, which you can explore by foot or bike. There are plenty of villages to visit, rivers to go swim and so on, and if I have time I will be happy to take you to some. Without a car, although, it may be a bit difficult to leave the farm: the nearest village with shops, bars and buses is 20 minutes by bike or an one hour walk. So your options for indipendent exploration may be a bit limited, unless you are a motivated cyclist or are ready to try your luck with hitchicking (which is not super popular around here unfortunately). But I am always happy to drive you around to show you the beautiful area where I live!
  
  As you can see from the map, we are quite close to the border with Austria and Slovenia, as well as the renown italian cities of Venice and Trieste, which you can reach in less than two hours by train on your free days (I will be happy to drive you to the station and come to pick you up). Also the main town of the area, Udine, is less well known but totally worth a visit.
  We have the Alps to the north, Slovenia to the east, the Adriatic sea to the south and Venice to the west!
  
  I have tried to think of everything relevant to write here but if you have any other questions or want more information, please feel free to ask. I'm really looking forward to hosting volunteers again from next spring on!
  
  Nicola

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  Lots of space for parking, but no drainage

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  My animals / pets

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