WWOF Italy: WWOOFer Turned Host

May 10 2011

Andrea: 29, Torino native, followed his father's career of financial analysis, began to travel, and woke up. Quit working with his father, WWOOFed in Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina. Has not really worked for four years as he tries to figure out the world. In the meantime, has WWOOFed on over twenty Italian farms, one in every region. Between farms, returns home to Torino to bring back to life his grandfather's country home, its garden, and hundreds of hazelnut trees. Now considering hosting WWOOFers of his own. Still not quite sure if he is ready to live this life on the farm permanently--at the age of twenty-nine choosing isolation with the threat of almost no income and all neighbors over the age of sixty is a difficult decision to make--but he is surely trying.

I met him on my WWOOFing travels and told him that I would come to his farm to help him out, so at the end of my time on Finocchio Verde, I joined him in the country. His life there is not glamorous, and it is not easy. When I see someone older doing it, especially surrounded by a WWOOFer or two, it seems beautiful and exciting, but when I see someone else my age doing it, it somehow seems melancholic. Waking up everyday by yourself to water plants, all so that you can eat the fruits of your labor...by yourself. I never will be able to do something like this alone. As one who is dependent upon sociality, community is of the utmost importance for me. That said, I applaud him. He is slowly fitting into the lifestyle, but young and restless like me, he knows that there is a small part of him that still has the disposition to up and move to Cuba and leave everything. On the farm, he is slowly working his own land and perhaps spending more time with his eighty-three year old neighbor, not only helping but learning from his experience.

I wish I had his guts! ...I also wish I had his grandfather's empty country house to inherit. I would set it up to become a WWOOFers paradise, find some way to make income (maybe first write a "grant" request to WWOOF Italy, asking for start up cash, and then instead of selling nuts from the trees as commodities, baking hazelnut cakes or making hazelnut butters to sell in the local town, at the churches, and in Torino.) As is the case with almost any commodity, selling hazelnuts alone pays next to nothing; you need some sort of markup, for better or worse.

I would return to Italy to help a fellow WWOOFer make an idea like this come to life! We already talked about getting married: for me a European passport would be convenient, and likewise for him with an American passport. Neither of us are very keen on traditional marriage in life, anyway, in the meanwhile we might as well use the institution for something mutually beneficial, yeah?