Experience authentic countryside life and share daily moments with us in Val di Zena, Italy

Details

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  Description

  La Vigna is a small house in the woods in the Bologna hills (45 min drive from the city center) in the beautiful Val di Zena (near to Botteghino di Zocca). Come here and help us with forest work and enjoy a peaceful life in nature.
  
  We are a 31 years old couple : Marco is an environmental educator and Paola is a primary school teacher. In 2023, we decided to leave the city in search of a place of peace and connection with nature. We no longer wanted to hear traffic noise or breathe polluted air. We dreamed of keeping warm using wood rather than gas, drinking well water after purifying it, and eating vegetables from our organic vegetable garden. That’s how we ended up at La Vigna, our little house in the woods!
  
  Life in the countryside requires a lot of work, all year round. That’s why, once we managed to set up a comfortable and independent room, we decided to join the Workaway network. Over the last two years, in addition to regular maintenance work on the countryside around the house, three terrible floods hit our area. We were not flooded, but the damage caused by landslides gave us a lot of extra work.
  
  The Val di Zena is a beautiful place: one of the most untouched areas in the Bologna's hills. We are both part of local association, which promotes and protects the area by maintaining and creating footpaths, that is just 500 meters from our home.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Sustainability

  

  Farming
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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

  Workawayers will experience authentic Italian countryside life and share daily moments with us in a peaceful, nature-based setting. You will learn about the seasonal foods we grow and about cooking pizza with a wood oven. Here you can develop your gardening skills and learn how to care for a vegetable garden.
  
  If you are intrested you can learn how does our association works to protect and promote the territory of the Zena Valley (foot path planning and maintenance, ensure access to historical sites and the safeguarding of oral heritage).
  
  We are quite close to Bologna. In your free time you can reach the city in 45 minute by car. If you don't have your own car we can give you a ride to Bologna after work. Here you can find everithing you want: a beautiful medieval city to visit, museum, cinemas, pub, exhibition, concerts... Even if it's not our cup of tea!

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  Help with stacking and moving firewood, garden tasks, and helping in the vegetable garden. Outside our proprieties there many footpath that need maintenance: we are used to work on those paths with a local association. A minimum level of experience in manual tasks and gardening is required.
  
  VERY IMPORTANT! We recommend volunteers to have a valid health insurance valid in Italy for the helping period. The volunteers will always work alongside us, always in safe conditions, and will only carry out tasks that we feel confident and comfortable with. Everyone works under their own responsibility: we disclaim any liability for injuries.
  
  We usually offer our guests 4 hours of work per day and 2 days off per week. Sometimes we are able to work together both in the morning and in the afternoon. Other times, we only work in the afternoon, after we have finished our regular jobs. On some days we may be busy, and our guests can take advantage of that time as a day off (not necessarily on the weekend), either to relax at home or to go for a trip into town.
  
  We believe that conviviality and spending time together are very important. At the same time, we are aware of the need to sleep and rest in order to face a working day (or rather, a double working day!) the following day. For this reason, we try to go to bed early, around 9:30–10:00 pm, after having dinner together at about 7:30–8:00 pm.

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  Languages spoken

  Italian: Fluent
  English: Intermediate
  Spanish: Intermediate
  French: Beginner

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  Accommodation

  Private room with independent entrance, bathroom, sofa-bed, table, small kitchen, and portico. Wi-Fi access but no phone signal: calls via internet. No public transport to reach our home (or neither the near village!): own vehicle recommended.
  
  We provide food and accommodation.
  Breakfast is self-served in your independent kitchen, with coffee, tea, milk, biscuits, and homemade jams.
  Lunch and dinner are prepared by us and enjoyed together at home: by the fireplace in winter or outdoors under the porch in summer. We usually eat pasta, rice, vegetables, cheeses, and legumes cooked in the Italian style, but we also love experimenting with international cuisine.
  If you prefer to cook on your own, we can provide all the ingredients you need (pasta, rice, legumes, eggs, cheese, vegetables, and more).

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  What else ...

  The place is only reachable by car. La Vigna is surrounded by nature and there are many opportunities for walks in the Val di Zena area. After work, we can give you a ride to Bologna (or San Lazzaro di Savena) if desired.

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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

  Wifi connection is quite good. It's not possibile to use mobile phone: only wifi call. In your room you will have a confortable table and a chair, if you need to work on your pc after gardening.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  There are a parking that you can use but be careful: the street to reach our house is not paved!

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  My animals / pets

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