Bassano Di Roma

Gail Bruce, Founder of HipSilver

Bibi Jordan, HipSilver’s Travel Contributor, has traveled all over the world, numerous times. She has written, photographed and published some beautiful books on her adventures. Her newest adventure is about various ways a Single Silver can travel, not pay a fortune for it, get the local flavor of the community and not do physical labor intended for younger travel lovers. She stumbled on WorkAway.com. Initially designed for the younger adventurer, it now includes, families, couples and single travelers. Bibi will be taking us with her on her live, work adventures.

An Update from Bassano Di Roma
From HipSilver's Travel Curator, Bibi Jordan

Do you ever wonder what’s the truth behind my perky Instagram posts … because there’s always a backstory that’s more interesting! So here’s a peek into another view of my always slightly bizarre WorkAway experiences.

I’m ensconced in an overgrown country villa that is stuffed with relics of a marriage between a British widow, Jackie, 65+ yrs., and her deceased husband of noble Italian ancestry. Jackie is an accomplished watercolor landscape artist, evident by the walls covered with scores of her paintings mixed with Baroque oils of forgotten ancestral nobility; traditional English hunting hounds and horses, illustrated in pen and ink and Middle Age French tapestries.

My role besides feeding the cats and dog, cleaning their occasional mess, pool skimming, and wood gathering is to build and rebrand her as a creative workshop retreat host.

In the morning, as the blurry, fog-laden, lake view from my bedroom window comes into focus, and the sun is out, my host is ready for adventure - to a palazzo, hilltop village, or thermal water resort, a mushroom festival, a cross-country horse meet, or just grocery shopping in many tiny artisan shops, each offering their unique specialties.

By the evening, after I have laid the fire, as part of my WorkAway duties, we meet for a glass of something by the fireside and chat. Jackie’s eyes are twinkling, because she’s going away to Malta for 4 days and mine, because I get space and solitude for me to process everything I have experienced thus.

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