Hello from Tuscany! Rach and I have been in a Tuscan town called Castagneto Carducci for the past week through a program called Workaway , which is a platform that connects “hosts” all around the world with volunteers. Shout out to Rach here because she discovered Workaway and was the one who got in touch with Chicca. After reading tons of host profiles, Rach came across Chicca’s and it immediately grabbed her attention (who wouldn’t want to live with an Italian chef right). She also had amazing reviews from past Workaway-ers. The timing was right and we agreed to come stay and help her for two weeks in October (it was a good thing Rach acted quickly because we learned she receives tons of inquiries). We’ve been looking forward to this part of our trip since and have tried to remain flexible with our dates so that we could make it happen.
Even though we’d been really excited for this part of our trip we also found ourselves pretty anxious and nervous on the train to Castagneto Carducci. We had no idea what the next two weeks of our trip were going to be like and hey let’s face it, we were about to live with a foreign family that we’d never met before. However, pretty soon after Chicca and Arnaud picked us up from the train station and welcomed us into their home most of our anxiety was lifted. Also, they have a super sweet dog named Janice (JAH-NEECE) that greeted us at the gate (we probably seemed more excited to meet the dog than to meet Chicca and Arnaud, oops. I definitely get more nerves meeting people than dogs). A little background information on Chicca (KEE-KUH) and her partner, Arnaud (AR-NOH, the French name for Arnold):
- Chicca has been running group and private cooking classes in her own kitchen for over fifteen years. You can find out more about her and her classes on her website.
- She lives with Arnaud in a restored Tuscan farmhouse with about two acres of land and rents out the two upstairs apartments (one of which we are now staying in).
- She’s been hosting Workaway-ers for a handful of years now and estimates she’s hosted around 40 people! She says she prefers American couples, as almost all of the group cooking classes are Americans.
- Funny to note that Chicca doesn’t speak much Italian anymore! Her and Arnaud speak French at home and she speaks English during her cooking classes and with Workaway-ers.
- Random fact, olive trees are harvested right around the beginning of October so a lot of people are gathering their olives now. Chicca had already harvested her trees by the time we got here. Would’ve been cool to help out with!
- The area of Castagneto Carducci is popular with cyclists! It is a unique part of Tuscany because it is not as traveled by foreign tourists (compared to Florence & Pisa) and is close to the beach.
When Rach and I arrived, Chicca told us that our time is overlapping with some other Workaway-ers that she’s been hosting for over a month, something that we weren’t expecting but it turned out to work in our favor! Our time only overlapped by a couple of days. She was hosting another American couple that hooked up with Chicca through a mutual friend that had done Workaway in the past. The couple was based out of Oregon and were really helpful in giving us a sort of orientation into Workaway with Chicca. All four of us were there for the group cooking class and it was nice to have them to answer our questions instead of having to bombard Chicca (think of having to put away every type of kitchenware away in a kitchen you’re totally unfamiliar with). Something that’s cool about traveling is the humbling experience you get when you meet other people and learn about what they’re doing with their lives. We found out that this other couple, Jedd and Michelle (married), are “digital nomads”. After spending two years in the Peace Corps, they started their own business doing online marketing, social media management, customer service and other online business services while they travel the world. What a life! They were super nice and we enjoyed asking them questions about their travels. They run their own website that’s pretty cool and they have some interesting projects and subtopics going. It’s also cool when you find a travel blog (“travel blogging”, yuck I know) that has a deeper meaning than some 25 year-old girl posting pictures of herself in a bikini.
In our nine or so days here we’ve helped Chicca with two cooking classes (one group, about 20 people, and one private, a family with three kids, that ended up being a nightmare). Helping for the classes includes polishing silverware, arranging furniture, setting the table, preparing different food stations for the class, helping and chatting up the Americans during the class, then clean up afterwards (and of course eating delicious food). We’ve also helped prepare a number of other dinners for Chicca and Arnaud’s dinner parties they host, they seem to always have friends come over! Although, most of our help has come in the form of yard work and not cooking classes (the group cooking class season is during the summer). We mostly help with various yard work tasks like weeding, trimming bamboo and ivy and cleaning out Chicca’s sheds. It’s a nice change of pace from our office jobs since we get to spend most of our time outdoors. I did have a realization while I was washing dishes about how lucky Rach and I were to have our cushy office jobs when we did. We may not have gotten much fulfillment out of our 9-5 jobs, but there were probably tons of people washing dishes in a kitchen somewhere that would have traded places with us in an instant if they could! Just a reminder to appreciate what you have when you have it sometimes.
Our free time has consisted of taking a lot of bike rides. To the grocery store(s), to the ocean, to neighboring villages, and through the backroads surrounded by vineyards and olive trees. Not a bad place to be! We’ve also enjoyed taking Janice on walks, laying in the Tuscan sun, and walking up to the actual village of Castagneto Carducci (it’s a medieval age village up on a hill, Chicca’s house is near the bottom of the hill). We were also lucky enough to make a day trip by train to another Tuscan city called Lucca, it’s by Pisa. It’s surrounded by thick, medieval walls that are wide enough to ride bikes on. So we loved riding on the walls with all the surrounding trees changing colors with the season and then exploring the inner streets.
It hasn’t always been easy here health-wise (both of our allergies have acted up pretty bad and we’ve gotten eaten alive by mosquitoes) but we enjoy helping Chicca and her family out in any way that we can because we’re grateful for the experience that they’re giving us. It’s awesome to actually stay in one place for more than a week and to experience how other people live. We’ve enjoyed the slower pace of life here, especially since summer is Tuscany’s busy season. The beach and neighboring towns are almost ghost towns now that the seasons are changing. It’s also been fun to learn about Chicca and her life. I think what makes her cooking classes special is her authenticity and her simplicity. When you come into her kitchen and her house there is nothing fancy or extravagant. She hosts up to 20-30 people and has one sink, one oven, one dishwasher, five gas-burners, one medium fridge and one small fridge. The most fancy thing about her kitchen is the marble countertops, Carrara marble which is the same marble Michelangelo used for David (yes ok that’s pretty ballin’). She has simple recipes that she’s used for years and cooks them with fresh ingredients and a passion and it works! Rach and I both hope that we can bring back some of these simple things to our kitchen when we get back from traveling.
Overall, Castagneto Carducci has been an awesome change of pace for us and we’re excited for our last week and a half here!
On to exploring more of Tuscany! Ciao!