If you find yourself staring at nothing instead of focusing on your work, counting down the days until the weekend as soon as you step into the office on Monday morning, scrolling through job listings aimlessly but never actually applying anywhere, and sitting in your car willing yourself to open the door and just walk into the damn building, it may be time for a break. And sometimes a weekend getaway or a 5-day trip to Mexico just isn’t enough to fill your emotional cup. But who the hell has the time or the money for a long break? you may be asking.
Well, fate is knocking at your door, friendo. Because AirBnB just announced that they’re going to pay for a few individuals to live in Italy for three months.
That’s right: live in Grottole, a hilltop village about 90 minutes from Bari, for free for three whole months. The catch? You’ll play host to AirBnB users who visit the 300-resident town while you also participate in an immersion program that includes vegetable gardening, olive oil production, honey harvesting, and pasta making. The home rental behemoth partnered with Wonder Grottole, a nonprofit whose aim is to revitalize the small village, which is currently dealing with an excess of available housing, to the tune of 600 empty homes, and a village on the brink of total abandonment.
Burnout is all too real: physical and emotional exhaustion, the inability to do even the smallest tasks, a sense of doom and gloom that follows you around wherever you go, and this has been a particularly overwhelming problem for millennials, who are, according to Buzzfeed’s Anne Helen Peterson, the burnout generation. We can’t really think of any better treatment for burnout than embracing idleness and slow travel by getting your hands dirty and immersing yourself in the slow pace of a southern Italian village at the height of summer.
Applications are due by February 17.
