An Argentine was chosen to live all payments in an Italian village for three months

An Argentinian volunteer and four other selected volunteers from Melbourne to the city of Buenos Aires were selected from more than 280,000 candidates to be part of
initiative of the Italian sabbatical leave.

It is an Airbnb project and the NGO Wonder Grottole to promote the city of Grottole, in the province of Matera, Italy, and to generate tourism. Grottole has only 300 inhabitants in its historic center and 600 uninhabited houses.

The Argentinian chosen is Pablo Colangelo. He is 36 years old and is a software engineer. He was born and raised in Buenos Aires. According to Airbnb, this will be his first experience of life outside the city.

Elected officials will live three months and receive all payments, taking Italian lessons, learning to cook and being trained to be co-hosts of accommodation and experiences at Grottole.

Argentina is one of the countries that sent the most requests. With more than 40,000 applications, it ranked second, after the United States.

The five volunteers were selected based on their motivation, their commitment to the project and their willingness to share their skills to contribute to the local community and to travel on June 5th.

Unexpected surprise

Pablo Colangelo learned at the end of March that he had been chosen to participate in this experiment.

"I try to make sure that the time spent on work and leisure is 50-50," he said.
THE NATION from Mexico, where he is taking a diving course. I get computer consultant contracts for a period of four to five months and the rest of the time, I'm dedicated to travel, blog and feed my Youtube channel. "

According to him, his proposals to revitalize life in Grottole will mix the two facets of his life. "What the members of the NGO and Airbnb want is that I contribute to the knowledge of the systems and it seemed useful to give visibility to the project in the social networks, with a Youtube channel on Italian cooking, beekeeping, etc. communicate using new technologies with family members who have left, "he said.

"I've always loved traveling in little-known places, small towns and communities, Italian culture is part of my roots, my grandfather lived an hour from Grottole," he added "I like to drive around town and try to leave my footprint, give back to Italy a little bit of what it has left us Argentineans."

Despite his nomadic life, Paul does not rule out settling later in a small town. "I will continue as a traveler for a few years, my dream has always been to establish in the south of Italy," he said. "That's why I find this trip very appealing, but it will be longer-term, in 20 years.relations with Grottole people, who knows, I'll be able to go later."