We have
spent the last four weeks at a lovely self-catering venue in Umbria called Pian
Della Bandina. The accommodation is a few Km’s out of town and in a beautiful
area. The fig trees were in season so we picked fresh ones for breakfast most
mornings. The couple, Guido and
Liesbeth, who run the place are Dutch.
They have made us feel very much at home and part of their family who
comprise of Johan (Liesbeth’s dad) and Tara and Mandy, their twin ‘almost-fourteen-year-old’
twin daughters. Almost all of their clientele are Dutch, so Jean has been
digging into the archives of her memory to use her Afrikaans to communicate from
time to time – especially with Johan (Oupa).
Of course, the bulk of guests and the host family and their children all
speak perfect English so language has not been much of a constraint and when we
have left the property to explore, get haircuts etc. then Google translate or
miming have been enough to get by.
As per
the usual Workaway deal, we have worked 20 – 25 hours per week in exchange for
food and accommodation. We had a lovely
studio apartment on the property and had a nice combination of eating meals
alone and with the family or guests when they did pizza or BBQ evenings.
The work
was anything around the property such as chopping wood, making beds, cleaning
the pool and preparing food. If there was a function on, we helped with the
prep and then pouring drinks and making sure the guests were looked after. We
really enjoyed the interaction with guests. On some occasions we had dinner
with them on their balconies and in particular became very attached to young
Ava, who seemed to enjoy her tours of the grounds.
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| Ava Taking Anthony For A Walk Around The Property |
Liesbeth
was kind enough to lend us her car now and then which gave us the opportunity
to visit some of the surrounding area - which is absolutely stunning (see more
on our daytrips in the next blog).
A
highlight of our stay here was a wedding attended by 47 people in our first
week. It was hard work to get everything
ready but really nice to be part of the celebration. We got to sample all the courses and even had
a dance with the wedding crowd!
This is
our last WorkAway on this trip but we have again had a wonderful experience
using this website.
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| Sunset |
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| Poolboy Hard At Work |
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| Farewell Dinner - Mandy, Jean, Anthony, Johan, Guido, Liesbeth, Tara |
Tomorrow we are off to Rome for a couple of days and then on Friday we fly to Dublin to meet up with Steve & Christelle Watkins to celebrate Steve’s 50th (yes, he is still older than us!)
<3
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