Learning, languages and interesting cultural exchange in the beautiful lake district of Piedmont, Italy

Details

• 

  Description

  We are Milena and Simon (29/38 years old from Germany and Italy) with our dog Emma, and in 2024 we finally realized our dream of buying a little house with a big garden in the northwest of Italy. We both have a part-time remote job and the rest of our time we like to welcome travelers, volunteers and friends and family. For us, this is a way of traveling without actually moving around. A couple of years ago we were both volunteering in ecological projects and organic farms, so we did our fair share of actual travel. Now, as we have a place we can call our own, we would like to offer that same opportunity of learning, cultural exchange and community work to people from around the world.

• 

  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  Animal Care

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
• 

  Interests

  

  Sustainability

  

  Farming

  

  Camping

  

  Plant care

  

  Music

  

  Hitchhiking

  

  Gardening

  

  Drawing & painting

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Books

  

  Animals

  

  Nature

  

  Hiking

  

  Pets

  

  Vegetarian or vegan
• 

  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  As we are an international couple, we can definitely offer an interesting cultural exchange – meaning language teaching (Italian/German as native language, English as a common language) and we can share typical Italian and/or German recipes.
  We also really like music, so we can do some jam session together and you are welcome to use our musical instruments (we have two guitars, a ukulele, drums, some small percussion instruments and soon a keyboard).
  If you are an artistic person, we have lots of different types of colours and materials that we are happy to share with you.
  You can use our bikes to explore the area and we can also find the time to drop you off at some nearby points of interest to do a hike.
  In our village, there is a delicious pastry shop and two coffee bars to hang out at. There is a bus going to Ivrea, the nearest city where you can find everything that a small city has to offer. In Ivrea there is also a train station that can bring you also to bigger cities like Torino or Milano, or more into the Alps towards Aosta.
  
  In general, our area is particularly adapted to nature lovers, because there is a great diversity of landscapes: flat area perfect for cycling, mountains perfect for hiking, forests, a river, and two beautiful lake areas that we can also drive you to.
  
  Of course can also simply relax here on our property, enjoying a good book in the hammock.

• 

  Projects involving children

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

• 

  Help

  As we have quite a big place, there is always a great variety of tasks to do, but you are welcome to help with whatever you enjoy the most. We already had some great volunteers helping us out, both around the house and in the garden. If you are an artistic person, you can help with some decoration of the volunteers apartment, if you have a green thumb you can help us take care of the veggie garden, if you are an animal lover, you are welcome to take our dog for a walk and if you like cooking, you can help prepare the meals that we eat all together. We can also arrange flexible volunteering hours, depending on your needs or wishes. Overall, everything we do is a bit of an experiment, but our general goal is to do our best to respect nature, sharing our little corner with our friends, family and guests.

• 

  Languages

  Languages spoken
  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Italian: Fluent
  Spanish: Intermediate
  French: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  Even though our native languages are Italian/German, we speak mostly English. We can offer some help in language learning and are also always interested in improving our Spanish or French or re-starting with Slovenian.
• 

  Accommodation

  Our house consists of two little apartments: We live upstairs, and the appartment downstairs is for traveling guests and volunteers. Therefore, volunteers will have to share the bathroom and kitchen with other volunteers or travelers. We are hosting both, travelers that stay just for a couple of nights and also volunteers that stay for several weeks.
  As our house is currently undergoing renovation, it is not always pristine and tidy. Additionally, being located in the countryside means we share our surroundings with a variety of animals. We’re looking forward to welcoming dogs and raising chickens soon, but in the meantime, we’re surrounded by a diverse range of wildlife, from mice to mosquitoes, dormice to green lizards, and numerous species of bugs. So, please, keep this in mind, you must enjoy nature in all of its shades.
  
  We are both vegetarians, but if you like to eat meat, you are welcome to do so as long as you buy the meat and prepare it yourself. We are also very happy to accommodate vegans and will happily adopt a vegan diet while you are staying with us. If you have a food allergy, that is also no problem - in summer 2024 we had both a vegan and a coeliac at the same time and it worked out fine for all.

• 

  What else ...

  When we were volunteers ourselves, we always aimed to be kind, respectful, and polite towards other volunteers and hosts. Now that we are hosts, we hope for the same from volunteers: to be respectful of the property and its inhabitants, to strive to be friendly, and to keep the common spaces tidy.

• 

  A little more information

  • 

    Internet access

  • 

    Limited internet access

  • 

    We have pets

  • 

    We are smokers

  • 

    Can host families

• 

  Can host digital nomads

  We both work from home from the computer, so we we are mostly busy in the morning hours with our own work. This means we can absolutely accommodate digital nomads that have similar working hours. We have a stable internet connection and often do video calls that work without problems.

• 

  Space for parking camper vans

  We have a big yard and already hosted travelers with vans.

• 

  Can possibly accept pets

  We are very happy to host volunteers with dogs (or other animals) as we are also animal lovers! In June 2024 we finally got our first dog - Emma - she is a little shy with people, but loves other dogs.

• 

  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

Website Safety

Feedback (3)