Live and Work For Free on an Italian Island
And how to integrate digital nomads into the local community through a fiction storytelling game.
It’s been a long time since I took a break from writing (9 months to be precise). Well, next week I am doing it. I’m taking some time for myself to brainstorm ideas for the content for Q4 of this year’s writing. Therefore, expect to hear back from me on October 8. Hopefully with some fresh ideas to inspire you.
And for this week I’m giving you a short recap and my thoughts of the things I read this week that seemed interesting to me from the work & leisure perspective.
1) Live for free on an Italian island - with a big but
If you’re following the remote work scene, you’ve probably seen the campaign by Sardinia that’s attracting remote workers to come and live and work from a tiny village called Ollolai for free. Almost free - you need to pay 1 € (probably for bureocratic reasons).
It all sounds great and it’s not the first case of such types of promotions that we’ve seen. But, there's a big but.
The main narrative of their campaign is to attract remote workers. People who require high-speed internet to be able to do their work. It’s one of their top priorities in choosing a place to live and work from.
The catch is that the village doesn’t provide Wi-Fi infrastructure.
Which would be perfectly fine as long as it wouldn’t be communicated for remote workers - people who usually avoid such places. The solution for them would be to communicate it that the program is intended for working professionals, whether they work remotely or not.
Most remote workers wouldn't actually be able to work remotely on the island. They are mentioning an e-sim alternative but I doubt that could cover video calls in an efficient way. They would need to take the month off to be able to live there.
And if they would have to take the month off, it’s the same if they would attract someone with a location-dependent job and they would take the month off as a kind of a vacation to create positive impact in the village.
To not be too critical, I love the other part of their campaign where they want these visitors to integrate into the local community and conduct workshops, lectures and inspire young people with their lifestyle.
I’m curious about the results of such initiatives and hopefully report them back to you here in this Substack.
To dive deeper in the issue, Serena wrote a great post covering this exact topic on her LinkedIn profile. The full article is available here.
2) Digital nomads and fiction
Vishakha, a participant at our last event wrote a piece about an interesting project she is working on.
It’s a game designed to connect travelers with the local community and helping them create local products.
I think it’s another great idea to motivate remote workers to visit some off-grid local communities (with Wi-Fi) and give them the opportunity to contribute and connect deeper with the locals. Good luck, Vishakha!
3) Do you want to eat or fly?
The last one is a passage from a book I started reading: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. It really resonated with me. When I traveled to Argentina last year on my 6-month solo trip, I felt exactly like the protagonist of this book. I wanted to “fly” but some people told me I should stick with “eating”.
Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flights–how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.
What is currently holding you back from flying? What would it take for you to start? If you want, you can let me know in the comments or shoot me a message.
Thanks for the mention ^_^
Love the quote from Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
"The solution for them would be to communicate it that the program is intended for working professionals, whether they work remotely or not."
Fully agree. There should be transparency about whether there's the right infrastructure to support remote workers. A fast internet connection is surely a key factor.
I would also add: How well is this place connected to other cities and major transportation hubs in the area?
In fact, some areas (like the one mentioned in this article) are still quite isolated and renting a car can get expensive.