Italy
Favourited 71 times
Hi everybody.
My name is Raffaele, I am 64 y.o. (although I don't show my age). I love cooking, writing, taking photos. I live in Livorno, but every summer, from August 1st to 20th, we escape the great heat, the global warming and the climate changes, and take refuge in a house on the Sila plateau, in Calabria, Villaggio Spineto, 1450 meters above sea level. Beech and pine woods, creeks, lakes, mushrooms in case of rain.
Next summer, Alessandra, my partner, will be in the United States, and my sons Sergio and Alberto will be one in London to improve his English, the other at home, every day on the beach with friends.
The house on the Sila plateau is made in stone and wood. The wooden parts (windows, doors, fences, etc.) must be protected from the winter cold and rain, coating them with a specific impregnant paint. This is the job I ask a workawayer: protection of the wooden parts of the house, and a little help in cleaning the house. A simple job, an almost meditative experience - or boring, depending on your point of view -, which takes 2 or 3 hours a day for 5 days a week, not more.
What can you do in your spare time? This could be a problem, especially for the first week.
Reading, cooking (I am an excellent cook and I can teach many recipes), listening to music, riding a bike, playing guitar, writing (if you want to write your life's novel - there is an old Mac at your disposal), practicing yoga (if you practice it), running, walking. And then again: going to the nearby village to shop, picking up mushrooms and raspberries and wild strawberries and preparing jams and liqueurs, sunbathing in the garden, watching movies, making art, watching the shooting stars at night. And again: take walks, visit neighboring countries, go to some good restaurant (a few km from our house there is a pizzeria that won a world championship for pizza makers), cook, and so on.
Only from August 8th to 22nd the life of our village and of the villages around us seems to wake up: lots of people in the village, festivals in the neighborhood, concerts, exhibitions. But in the very first days of August we could be the only ones in the village (but not on Saturdays and Sundays) – that's the risk. It's around August 10th that the village gets filled with people. So the doors of the houses are always open, and we share activities and meals with our neighbors.
So: a relaxing life, without big commitments nor unbridled fun.
I usually cook vegetarian dishes: around the house there are cultivated fields and we use the vegetables harvested directly by the farmers.
If this may interest you, well, let's start talking about it.
Ciao!
P.S. - I am no longer new to Workaway as I had several excellent experiences in the last 10 years, and there is no problem if references are needed, in addition to those already on my profile.
General Maintenance
Help in the house
The workawayer can have a direct and deep knowledge of a good Italian, can learn Italian cooking, can have a lot of free time.
Painting fences and doors and shutters. Little help in the house.
Italian, English
A single room with a private bathroom
I am a good unprofessional cook, an unprofessional writer, an unprofessional photographer, and work in real estate.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
One
2/3 hours a day / 5 days
