We are Andis and Laura and this is our story of how we get to experience Italy from the Italian point of view.
We’re reminding ourselves that maybe this is the only time we have a chance to do some aimless traveling.. I wouldn’t say it is entirely aimless as we want to learn Italian and experience the culture, but it is with no deadline and final destination, which makes this trip so special.
After four years of studies in Amsterdam we realized that this is the moment of freedom, where we can fit in some traveling. We found a website, where you can do housesitting for others, while they are away, which would give us a free accommodation for exchange of a little work. This is how the idea actually started up, and how we came to Italy. Our friend offered us to stay in her apartment in Camogli, saying: Why would you go somewhere else if I can help you with some accommodation in Italy? In couple of days we bought a one-way ticket to Italy and our adventure was about to start. After some little research on the Internet, our friend found a website, which offered us everything we wanted and needed – possibility to travel Italy and get to know the culture, people, food, nature and everything else Italy had to offer. Baratto B&B is a wonderful website, which lists all Bead and Breakfast’s in Italy that offer you to stay in their facilities, while in exchange asking for some work. This “work” can be various things from helping in the garden, making pictures and videos of the place, teaching English to a more professional help like making a website, repairing electricity, doing reconstructions and so on. We kept an open mind to what we can offer and listed all things that we are capable of doing: gardening, photo making, teaching little yoga and acro-yoga, teaching English, and everything else that might be suitable for the B&B owners.
We realized that this is the way want to experience Italy – travel around the countryside and grasp anything it has to offer! The barter travelling gives us a full package of experience: people, culture, language, nature and food. And what about the big cities you may thing? Well, cities are not going anywhere and can be visited any other time in the future. If we have a chance to see them during the trip, we don’t miss such an opportunity, but we also don’t get overly upset if we don’t see one or two.
Since we started our barter travel, we have visited two places – one in Framura and the other here in Le Case san Romolo. In both of the places we have met very kind people, who share their little world with us. We get to see little towns, which we wouldn’t visit in any other circumstances. We see the nature by hiking the surrounding trails. We taste the food and get to know the specialties of the region. We learn the language by interacting with the locals. We see Italy from Italian’s perspective and we love it!
We have a month to go from Genoa to Rome (we will go back to Latvia for two weeks and then come back to Italy) with an idea to stay about 3-4 days in every place. We contacted B&B’s in Tuscany and our trip slowly started to become real. The first 5 days we stayed in Framura in a biological B&B up in the hill, then two days in Lucca and now the next 4 days here in Le Case san Romolo. Then we head to Marcialla Sud and San Gimignano just south from Florence. We want to see Siena and find one more place before our next destination in Sorano. And then we hope to find one more B&B between Sorano and Rome to complete the trip. After coming back to Rome in the end of November we want to travel Campania, Puglia, Calabria and Sicilia and who knows where we end up.
Casale Fontibucci 