“Martis? What are you gonna do there for ten days?”

That was often the response I heard from people when I told them where I was going to spend the majority of my time on this island at.

I told them I was going to do some work exchange there. I didn’t know much about the place, or the village called Martis. Just that the owner of the farm, Giovanni, seemed very friendly when we talked on Workaway. He had also lived in Thailand for a year and had an amazing time in my country. So I thought why not?

The early morning bus took me through the main street of Martis. I looked around with curiosity and saw how small and quiet the village seemed to be. Then I though to myself,

‘What am I doing in Martis?’

There were three bars in Martis, one of them make pizzas on weekend evenings, and a small grocery shop. You could ask anyone in the village and they would be able to tell you where Giovanni lived. Oh, and surprisingly, there’s free wifi in the main square of this small village.

I found Giovanni’s house which looked a bit nicer, newer, than many houses in the surroundings. The sound of dogs barking was the response I received after ringing the doorbell. I tried again, this time Andrea opened the door and greeted me. He took my backpack and led me upstairs to the kitchen of the house where Serena, his girlfriend, was making tea for breakfast. Both of them were volunteered who had been living there for a couple of weeks now. They seemed very at home at this place.

While having fresh figs from the garden for breakfast, I met the other two volunteers. Anthony from America and Roger from Switzerland, both of them had also been here for a while.

Within half an hour of my arrival, I received two unexpected news. First, Giovanni wasn’t at the farmhouse. He left just a few days ago because he had a problem with one of his strings or muscles and he had to go back to see the doctor in Tuscany. Second news, baby goat who was born the day before died last night and no one at the farm knew what to do next.

Right, the owner of this place wasn’t here, and no one knew how to milk goat. The unpredictable reality of life.

The first few days at the farm was a little bit strange. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, or what my job was. I was disappointed that the bees died over winter so there would be no bee keeping, there would be no cheese making since one goat wouldn’t produce enough milk for any types of cheese, and the weather was to hot to light the pizza oven and bake pizza or bread.

Basically, all the things that got me interested in coming to this place were not gonna take place during my stay.

Serena said she had been mainly cleaning and cooking for everyone in the house, being the only female there. So I thought I might do the same. I started with picking some berries and made some courgette cake, the produce we had way too much of at this period. And since they didn’t make you do what you didn’t want to do, but rather encourage you to do, or learn, about what you were interested in, I decided to stick with cooking and feeding people.

Everything started to make more sense when Giovanni came back. Then I understood why everyone, Andrea, Serena, Roger and Antony, all of them came back to this place after their first visits.

Giovanni was full of energy, and being around him just boosted your enthusiasm and willingness to work and get things done, as well as to have fun. That was what he wanted for the volunteered who stayed with him, to learn about the cultures and have fun. At the age of 34, he had travelled a lot and he seemed quite young to be living in such a small place like Martis. But he had his vision and his reason, he wanted to create a small community here. Of course he didn’t plan to stay here for the rest of his life, as much as he loved the place, he also loved travelling.

Basically, Giovanni was the heart of this farm. I wanted to leave this place after the first few days but at the end I even considered coming back here to make a documentary for my last project.




There was nothing exciting here, life was simple. But this place was full of lovely people and that was the most important thing. I might not get to learn about beekeeping or cheesemaking, or bake bread and pizzas this time. However I knew that these things would always be here for me to learn when I come back. We saw a tradition costume parade in town, went on a day trip to the beach with other volunteers and enjoyed many delicious meals together. There was plenty of work to be done but some fun and new project ideas were always considered and supported. That was the best thing about this place.

So, with a clearer idea of what I want to do in Martis, I will be back here again.