Thomas & Lia

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Hi, we are Lia and Thomas!

Early 2019, we quit our jobs, bought a van and left Switzerland to travel around Europe. We ended up travelling for two years, from which we spent 18 months doing Workaway in 11 different places. After that wonderful break, we went back home to get back on our feet and focus on what we’d learned and what we really wanted. It took us a while but now we are determined: we want to leave Switzerland for good and go live in Italy!

We think it can help you have and more precise idea to know what our project is, so here goes: we want to buy an old house with productive land, refurbish it in order to have a few rooms to rent, breed chicken and pigs, grow our vegetables and mostly be able to have our family and friends whenever they want to. Having spent quite a bit of time in Italy, we now know that Umbria is where we belong.
Indeed, our plan for next Winter/Spring is to find a host in Umbria, where we can learn more about the area and its traditions. And if the work is (even remotely) related to agriturismo/catering business, and/or farming, that would be just perfect!

SEP 2023 UPDATE:
Having left home for good, we are now officially Italian residents and we’re spending the whole touristic season (April to November) working in the heart of Chianti, running the kitchen of a small wine bar/restaurant. Even though the season is not yet over, we’ve already gained a lot of precious experience, first hired as mere all-rounder/helper, we ended up managing the whole kitchen between the two of us!



A bit about ourselves, of course:

Always with a smile on her face, Lia, 29 years old, is a sparkling young lady who is constantly willing to meet new people and try her hand at new things. She loves talking for hours over a coffee or a glass of wine. When studying at Uni, she has worked for a long time in bars and restaurants and finally ventured into banking. But behind her "city" looks hides a true tough farmer happy to tackle any heavy task. During our big trip, Lia’s learned a lot our new crafts (wood carving, crochet, sewing, etc), nursed a lot of lambs and proved very patient and committed growing and caring for plants.

Now 35 years old, Thomas turned his back to a former career in academia and chose a simpler life. Being back in Switzerland, he changed jobs so he could spend more time cooking, learning about joinery and carpentry and taking care of our dog. He also managed to completely refit our van, from insulation to solar and plumbing works. Loving animals (especially dogs and pigs) and being outdoors, Thomas will gladly do the heavy duty and other more physical tasks.
We are both passionate about food and drinks, love discovering new cuisine and tasting new things. As real epicureans, we're always eager to learn more about wine and wine making, but also distilling and brewing. In short, we just love to enjoy the little things!

Tagging along and never leaving us, Carat is our 45 kg baby dog! Despite her looks, Carat is a big teddy bear who loves humans most of all. Having lived for almost two years in a shelter, she’s used to being with other dogs and is sociable with them. After some experience with "host-dogs", she has proven respectful with her fellows and their territory, especially if there are several of them. She’s indifferent to small farm animals (like sheep and poultry), and certainly won't mess with horses, cows or pigs! Carat sometimes likes to chase cats. However, cohabitation is totally possible as long as we keep an eye on her, which we did successfully each time we lived with cats (in more than half of our Workaway stays actually!)

If you have the kindness of taking us as your guest co-workers, know that we make a point of respecting our host(s). Indeed, we will gladly get busy with what you need from us, we’ll eat what you eat and most of all we love to experience other cultures and traditions. In our Workawayers experience, we proved being able to handle all of the tasks we were given, no matter rain or heat.


Now you know us a little more, but feel free to ask for more details. We hope that we will meet soon, and we already know that we will have fun together!

Interesses

Idiomas

Inglês: Fluente
Francês: Fluente
Italiano: Fluente
Alemão: Intermediário

Habilidades e conhecimento para compartilhar ou aprender

Temos interesse em:  

Projetos ambientais

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Conhecimento de:  

Jardinagem

Projetos de construção/faça você mesmo

Manutenção geral

Vida na fazenda

Idiomas

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Podemos ensinar:  

Criar/cozinhar refeições caseiras

Ajuda a cuidar da casa

Cuidar de animais

Hotelaria/turismo

Quais são suas habilidades?

Land clearing, weeding, ploughing, planting, garden caring
(Hard) landscaping, paving and footpath laying
All types of fencing

Woodworking and basic building; strong experience in wood chopping and chainsawing; basic knowledge in carpentry, wood milling.
Cement and brick laying, lime pointing and picking
Plastering, installing plaster boards, insulation
Cleaning, organising, decorating

Feeding and taking care of animals (especially poultry and pigs; sheep and horses), solid experience in lambing and bottle feeding
Basic butchery (chicken and mutton)

Working in B&B/Agriturismo management (3 months B&B in Puglia, 2 months AirBnB in Scotland, 6 months AirBnB + kitchen in Tuscany), customer service, cleaning rooms and outdoors, cooking and baking breakfast, supplies management, accounting; experience in farm shop
Strong experience working in bars and restaurants (Lia worked in bars for years; we’re both currently running a small restaurant’s kitchen in Tuscany)

Basic brewing (we brew pretty decent ginger, nettle or beetroot beer; tried elderflower and maté beer as well)
Crochet, knitting and sewing
Any heavy duty!

Idade

35 & 29

Mais algumas informações

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  Fumante

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  Carteira de motorista

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  Alergias

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  Dietas especiais