Meet the couple who travelled Europe to learn eco skills and are now putting down roots in Italy

euronews (in English)

Their adventures in France and Portugal taught 'Growing Greener' how to create an eco-lodge built around nature, sharing and community.

Transcript

00:00 It's open up this Ecologe with Elisa. This is my dream.

00:04 Hoping that at least in a couple of years time we'll be settled in an area in a village in Chilento

00:12 where I've built this Ecologe project which will be a space immersed in nature

00:18 where we can accept travellers to come and visit us

00:21 who want to travel and experience the area having a positive effect on the community

00:25 in a more sustainable way and just live a slow life surrounded by people

00:33 who are passionate about the things we are.

00:35 Hi, I'm Elisa.

00:37 And I'm Franciusca.

00:38 And we're working to open up an Ecologe in an area called Chilento in Southern Italy.

00:44 We want this project to take time because we really want to build this project

00:51 with the people from the community, from Prendifumo.

00:55 We don't want just, ok, we buy a land and we build our project.

01:00 No. We want something different.

01:03 Other Ecologe or Bed and Breakfast or a motel.

01:07 We want something really authentic and that can respect the people who live in this place.

01:12 And we want to build with them.

01:15 I met Elisa and we talked about our lives and we wanted to live our lives

01:21 so we decided to go and travel and to learn how to live more sustainably.

01:28 And we travelled around Europe.

01:30 Our first stop was in Portugal.

01:32 We went to stay for two months on an eco-retreat farm in a place called Algezur.

01:38 It's in the mountains, far away from any other kind of civilization in a way.

01:43 Living completely off-grid.

01:45 We slept in a tent for two months.

01:47 It was an awesome experience.

01:49 Yeah, one extreme to the other.

01:50 We went from being in a crazy city like Naples to being in the middle of the forest.

01:54 Then our next stop was France.

01:58 We stayed for two months as well on, I guess you'd call it like an organic farm.

02:04 We learnt a lot, so much about agriculture and how to grow vegetables.

02:11 We helped plant a food forest.

02:14 We planted over 150 trees in the time that we were there.

02:17 We also spent two months working on an organic vineyard in France.

02:22 It's been a crazy year, I guess, of travelling since we left our lives behind in Naples.

02:28 We've learnt a lot and had a lot of fun while we were doing it.

02:32 It's something completely new and foreign.

02:34 For a video editor and an English teacher, living in a city, going to the middle of nature.

02:40 During travels, I realised the importance of creating community.

02:45 Listening and trusting in the community that you have around you.

02:49 What we're doing right now, we are working towards beginning some events in 2024.

02:56 Something on the lines of some permaculture workshops, maybe some yoga classes.

03:02 Maybe some hiking in the local area.

03:05 That's something really exciting that's coming.

03:07 It's the first big step that Rory Greener is creating an event.

03:13 We're happy with our project.

03:15 This project will take time, but this is OK, because we need time to build something authentic and meaningful.

03:26 (upbeat music)

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