Sadly, our time in Tuscany at our Workaway has come to an end. In total, we ended up staying with Chicca and her family for 2 1⁄2 weeks, but it felt like so much longer. Although it went by fast, we feel like we experienced the Italian way of life (in Tuscany at least) - specifically, a more slow paced, relaxed, generous lifestyle where working was more about passion than anything else. We took away so many Italian cooking tips which we can’t wait to share with our family and friends and for the first time on our trip, we experienced pure relaxation (we had a little too much time on our hands). What started as an out of our comfort zone, somewhat awkward situation where we constantly asked what we could do to help, ended with us feeling at home, and knowing our tasks and way around the house.
Looking back, we witnessed the kindness of complete strangers welcoming us into their home, including us in family dinners, giving us a place to stay, trusting us, and taking us out for several gelatos and coffees. We couldn’t have asked for better hosts and a wonderful first experience using Workaway, the bar has been set pretty high. We hope we can reciprocate if and when they visit California.
I’ll try and keep it short and sum up our last week or so in Tuscany:
- We took several bike rides, mostly to the local grocery store “Coop” to get food and a cheap store brand gelato that was amazingly delicious as well as to the nearby beach town.
- We walked/ran around their property in the evenings with Janice the dog (mostly Rach).
- We did outdoor workouts on the backyard lawn (mostly Alex).
- We witnessed more amazing Tuscan sunsets.
- We started to get a feel for Italian winter weather as it got pretty cold our last few days and we experienced a crazy thunderstorm and lots of rain (it rains in Italy what?!).
- We finished binging the Italian Netflix series Suburra (highly recommend) which takes place in Rome.
- We both got haircuts in the nearby town Cecina (thank goodness Chicca could translate for us).
- We watched a marathon of Sacha Baron Cohen movies.
- We made homemade chicken noodle soup for our hosts (we wanted to make them something for dinner and it was cold outside so this is what we decided since it was simple and yummy).
- We helped with another private cooking class for a retired Australian couple who had been traveling around Europe in a camper van for the last FIFTEEN months (they were super interesting to talk to #retirementgoals).
- We did a lot of research and finished planning the next leg of our trip.
- We were lazy (mostly Rach).
- We ate A LOT of good food (probably need to get some bigger pants).
- We learned a lot from Chicca and Arnaud about Italy, France, relationships, and life in general.
Overall, we had a wonderful experience and have really enjoyed our month (in total) in Italy! We will surely miss the down time, yummy food, gelato and good company, but we are looking forward to exploring our next destination - Spain!
For anyone interested: Chicca does group and private cooking classes as well as week long cooking vacations. She also rents her two upstairs apartments. If you are planning a trip to Tuscany, we recommend stopping in Castagneto Carducci and doing a class with Chicca! You won’t regret it! If anyone is interested in staying with Chicca through a work exchange, let us know and we can connect you. Many of the people that stay with her and help out are through referrals.
Ciao! On to Spain!