Volunteer at Casa Codibugnolo ๐ฆ
We are Milena and Simon (28/37 years old from Germany and Italy), and last year we finally realized our dream of buying a little house with a big garden in the northwest of Italy. We moved here last winter and started with renovation works on the house and with the warmer temperatures we are now moving our focus to the garden. A couple of years ago we were both volunteering in ecological projects and organic farms and would like to slowly develop our own project, and would be happy to welcome some helping hands at our place.
We are very happy to host volunteers with dogs (or other animals) as we are also animal lovers! And people travelling with a camper/van.
Also, our home is close to the historical “Via Francigena“, so we may soon start to host its pilgrims. That’d be cool!
What category best describes your hosting arrangement? ๐ก
- Private/Individual/family
Location – Where is your volunteer project located?๐
- We are in a peaceful green valley about 5km from Ivrea, in the north-west of Italy.
What are you looking for help with?
Building ๐ - Cleaning ๐งน
- Farming/Gardening ๐ฟ๐
- seeding
- watering
- weeding
- wood stacking
- fence building
- path building + maintenance
- staple cleaning
- rainwater collection
- etc. etc.
- other eco-projects & events
What’s the mission of your community? ๐ฏ
As we just recently moved here, we are still in the phase of getting to know our place ourselves and figuring out which projects we would like to start with. Our focus in the next couple of months is the creation of an organic veggie garden and a space to keep some animals. 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.
Other keywords that relate to what we are or what we are interested in:
- #permaculture
- #vegetarian & #vegan
- #ecovillages
- #intentionalcommunities
- #biodiversity
- #greenroof
- #beekeeping
- #cob oven
- #astronomy
- #science
- #music
- #hitchhiking
- #green building
- #yurt
- #alternative lifestyles
- # downshifting/degrowth
- #francigen’s way
- #birdwatching
- #botany
Volunteers with disabilities โฟ
Volunteers with disabilities are welcome โฟ โ
Please note: our location features varied landscapes, including sloping terrains, staircases, and uneven surfaces, which may present challenges for individuals with mobility difficulties. Nevertheless, we warmly invite you to contact us and share how we can make this work.
How many volunteers could you host? ๐
- A couple of volunteers/maybe more
When do you usually need volunteers? ๐
- We particularly need volunteers from spring to autumn, not so much in winter.
How many hours of help per day? โฑ
- 5-6 hours of help per day
How many days of help per week? ๐
- 5 days per week – 2 days off
Note about the volunteer work and other expectations ๐
We can definitely arrange flexible volunteering hours, depending on the needs/wishes of the volunteers. We ask for a maximum of 30 working hours per week, preferably with longer days on the weekend, because we are both working from the computer each morning from Monday-Friday.
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 expect the same from volunteers: to be respectful of the property and its inhabitants, to strive to be friendly, and to keep themselves, the environment, and the house rooms clean.
We dislike smoking, so if you are a smoker, you will need to do so outside the property. ๐ญ
Are accommodation and food included? ๐ ๐
Yes, we offer food and accommodation
Our house consists of two little apartments, one (upstairs), it’s where we are living, and the other one will be available to the volunteers (each volunteer will get their own room, but the bathroom and kitchen have to be shared among us and the volunteers).
However, we also have a space for tents or even vans.
What type of accommodation can you provide? ๐
- Private Room ๐
- Private home ๐
- Dormitory
- Private room for a couple ๐
Our house is currently undergoing renovation, so it’s 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 ๐
Diet – nutrition information ๐ฅ๐ฅค
We are both vegetarian, but we are also open to hosting meat eaters as long as you buy it and prepare it yourself.
We’re also very happy to accommodate vegans and adopt a vegan diet while you’re staying with us.
Fee transparency ๐๐
We do not ask for any fee/contribution for all volunteers who are working around 30 hours per week.
We are also considering hosting volunteers who can contribute only fewer hours such as 10 hours per week (for example digital nomads), in that case, we would ask for a small contribution that can be individually agreed on based on how many hours the volunteer wants to contribute.
VISA SUPPORT – Are you able to assist with visa support, and information, or provide invitation letters? ๐
- No, we cannot help with Visa but we can offer assistance ๐โโ๏ธ
Volunteers’ benefits ๐๐
As we are already an international couple, we can definitely offer everything related to cultural exchange – meaning language teaching (Italian/German as native language, English as a common language) and we can share some typical Italian and/or German recipes.
You are welcome to use our musical instruments or do a jam session with us (we have two guitars, drums and soon a keyboard).
We can borrow you a bike (at the moment we only have one that needs fixing), but we can also make some time to drop you off at some nearby points of interest or do a hike together.
If you are an artistic person, we have lots of different types of colours and materials that we are happy to share with you.
What are the available activities during free time? ๐ด๐ฃ๐ฆ
In our village there is a delicious pastry shop and two coffee bars to hang out at. There is a bus going you 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.
Ivrea is famous for its orange battle carnival in February!
Of course can also simply relax here on our property, enjoying a good book in the hammock.
As we will not always have time to accompany the volunteers in their free time activities, we will do our best to host at least two volunteers at the same time so that no one feels lonely.
Language ๐ฃ๐ฌ๐ง
We speak mostly English together, but are fluent in German and Italian, and have basics in Spanish and French.
How to get to your site โ ๐บ
Even though you can reach our village by bus (about 10 minutes of walking from our house), we can pick you up at the train station in Ivrea.
Is there internet access? ๐
Yes!
“Paying guests” Option. Could you accommodate “solidarity” tourists? ๐
Maybe. This needs to be discussed via e-mail ๐
CONTACT DETAILS ๐๐ง
If you’re interested in our hospitality offer, please send us a message or email with a brief introduction about yourself, your expectations for the volunteering experience, some links to your social profiles or websites, or alternatively, a CV with a few photos. Also, let us know how long you ideally intend to stay and during which period. Please note that we may not respond to illegitimate requests (such as invitation letters), incomplete or anonymous profiles, insincere messages, or those resembling spam or copy-paste. Thank you for your understanding!
Host Email โ cascina.codibugnolo@gmail.com
Hostname ๐ Simone&Milena
