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 exit 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 Tibetan 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 18-year old daughter at times on weekends for evening pick-ups.
  We have yard work and gardening to do during warm weather months, some planting and feeding the outdoor cats and the dog. We always have on-going projects, some 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 private 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 additional local workers if you are interested in more hours as opposed to more free time to explore the wonderful Parco Ticino region (the protected zone we ilve in)

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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

  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 Our local library offers free Italian lessons! You can try your hand at homemade pizza in our wood oven or watch as we roast over the open fireplace. If you're into 'wilding', you can find all kinds of edibles in the area. Literally between the house and road wild salad grows. We have mushrooms, nettles, dandelion, spinach, hops and other wild edible plants. I would also love to relocate some wild edibles to a specific untouched area on our land to create a wild garden with superior nutritional characteristics.
  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. This is proving to be difficult.
  Note: we will eventually, at some point in the future, 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 and tend to the few animals and keep and eye on the house when we are away with basic maintenance.

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  Aide

  We would appreciate help with watering the shrubs, mowing the lawn, raking and putting out food in the mornings for the dog and the cats.
  
  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 have delayed our project for installing solar panels and battery banks, we are currently updating our well filtering system, we have completed the new hen house with living roof, automatic door opening/closing with handy compost behind the roosts (and near the goat house) for easy cleaning. We just completed a barn renovation and have yet to get started on a no-till, no irrigation garden that we fenced off 900 sq meters for. I'd love to have a couple of ram pumps if I find someone curious enough to assemble one with me.😉
  Any skills in landscaping would be greatly welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even amateur skills, I am constantly tweeking our rough farmish land to make it look more tended and tailored. Not sure I will ever get there. Quite a dream.

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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 and Courmayeur are the closest chic international ski resorts though there are lesser known resorts closer.
  We are located a mere 5 minutes walk from town where there are buses and trains daily though we offer use of the car so generally these are not needed.
  There is a great gym nearby. We also have a large professional trampoline on our property that you are free to use and there are some beautiful river bathing spots in the area.
  We respect allergies and in fact, we avoid grains and never eat gluten and seldom consume packaged foods.

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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. We have both indoor and outdoor service providers. The hours of help needed are all quite flexible. In fact, self-starters who are capable of managing their time can chip in with the weekly tasks at their leisure.

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  If you have a camper, you are perfectly welcome. We have plenty of land.

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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. We don't let the animals into the house except of course who could say no to those adorable kittens. At least 16-17 are born here every year and all get adopted.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Un

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  Nombre d'heures attendues

  Maximum 5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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