Settle into an Italo-American homestead in Lombardy, the north of Italy

Infos

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  Description

  We are a mixed nationality family, American and Italian, with a large homestead in the Lombardy region of Italy. We are located a convenient 4 minutes drive from the highway exist and 2 minutes from town though we have total privacy amidst greenery.
  We have a waterway surrounding our property that provides a beautiful natural sound to relax to.
  We have mini goats, chickens, cats and a guard dog. Plenty of gardens, standard, raised and vertical.
  An important part of the assistance we need, for now, is driving our 17-year old daughter to school and outings and also evening pick-ups.
  The rest is standard yard and gardening help during warm weather months and feeding the outdoor cats and the dog. We always have on-going projects with a local builder who needs 4 hands 😅 and only has two.
  We always respect our helper's privacy and enable them to be perfectly independent.
  We have plenty of space on a large property so you will have your own room and bathroom.
  We will provide food or a budget for food if you prefer to be autonomous.
  if we are lucky enough to find a person with a skill-set, we are happy to compensate as opposed to hiring local workers.

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Pratique d’une langue

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  S’occuper des animaux

  Aide dans une ferme

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Entretien général
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  You can learn about no till-no, no watering gardening methods, practice your English or learn Italian. We are working on becoming fully sustainable and self-sufficient with ram pumps, a manual pump and solar panels. So if these methods intrigue you, why not learn how they work?
  We hope to conclude the purchase of land adjacent to ours which has a natural pond which we will transform into a beautiful eco-pool surrounded by a food forest.
  Note: we will eventually be looking to fill a permanent position and will be building a new separate home on our property when and if we find the right person or couple. One main task for this person would be to tend to the no-till, no-watering garden, mostly for planting and harvesting for storage in the yet-to-be-build root cellar, tend to the few animals and keep and eye on the house when we are away. This would include managing as many workers as needed.
  We are always happy to reward good workers! 😁

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  Aide

  We would appreciate help with watering the shrubs, mowing the lawn and putting out food in the mornings for the dog and the cats. If you are a good driver, in exchange for helping run my daughter (age 17) around, we can work out use of the car.
  Good knowledge of French or Spanish would be a great plus since my daughter is studying languages.
  We often have a host of workers, plumbers, electricians, masons and woodworkers about at various times, so we ask assistance if necessary and if you have strong skills that allow us to do away with professionals for certain projects, we will happily compensate.
  We are in the process of placing solar panels with battery bank, updating our well filtering system, building a new hen house, renovating our barn into a home, and creating a huge garden and root cellar.

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Anglais: Courant
  Italien: Courant
  Français: Débutant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  My daughter is also studying languages in high school and we would love someone who could help her out. French and Spanish would be helpful for her. 😉
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  Hébergement

  One large bedroom with en-suite bath in a private area of the house.

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  Autres infos...

  Milan is a quick express train ride away. You can easily visit Pavia and Vigevano. Even Genova is a hop skip and jump away by Bla Bla car (5€) or the seaside town of Arrenzano. You can also make day trips to Como or Lago Maggiore. Chamonix is the closest chic international ski resort though there lesser known resorts others closer.
  We are located a mere 5 minutes walk from town where there are buses and a train station.
  There is a great gym (that my daughter and husband frequent) which is 8 minutes by car. We also have a large professional trampoline on our property that you are free to use.
  If you enjoy cooking, that would be a handy skill around here. We roast over the open fireplace, in our pizza oven and also have two outdoor grills.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  Digital nomads welcome. You will have your own space and plenty of silence and privacy. The hours of help needed are pretty flexible. The only fixed hours are driving my daughter to school. The rest can all be done pretty much at your convenience.

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  If you have a camper, you are perfectly welcome.

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  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  Hm this is a tough one. We welcome animals, however we have a guard dog who may or may not take kindly to an animal. He is closed in his own area however. Our cats are outdoor cats and males are very territorial.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Un

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  Nombre d'heures attendues

  Maximum 5 hours a day, 6 days a week