How we got here

About INSPIRA and how we came to create this wonderful nature and farmstay dream space in Tuscany

When dreams come true!

Hi! We are Marcela and Mark, a couple in our mid-life (50s). Early this year we moved from our home of 28+ years in Switzerland to the heart of the lovely Tuscan Maremma in Italy. We left our traditional city life in the Zurich vicinity, and our corporate jobs. Why? Simple, the call for a more meaningful and sustainable life meant for us to be close to nature, to live out our passions and not just enjoy them as hobbies on the side of successful business careers.

One might think that it was a single moment of realization that triggered the change, but actually it’s something that has been whispering clues in our ears and dreams for many years. In the early days, when our children were small, we wanted them to grow-up near their Swiss family. But we did always live close to the woods and had a little vegetable garden. By the time the kids were "old enough", we were considering moving as a family to Mexico or Costa Rica, closer to nature and the coral reefs we love, but then came COVID19... So, we re-directed our energy to enhancing our fruit and vegetable garden.

This is us, back in Switzerland a few years ago.

A first leap South.

We did finally take a bit of a leap in 2021, when we decided to move to Locarno (in Ticino, the Southern Kanton in Switzerland). A change of State, language (they speak Italian there), and job, at least one of us.

For Marcela, who grew up in Mexico City speaking Spanish and French at school, the transition to Italian was not so challenging. But she did take on a big professional change, leaving her work in the insurance industry, and turning her hobby into her full-time job: painting, making paper sculptures, and teaching both skills to kids and adults, while running a small art gallery.

For Mark the move to Locarno did not mean such a big change (other than the location and climate of course) because he kept his customers in Zurich, and spent half the week there. But after almost 3 years, the yearning for nature and doing something more aligned with that became a need that could no longer be ignored. He took a couple of courses on Permaculture and in the process we both absolutely fell in love with the approach. By then it was 2023. Our grown-up children wanted to stay in Zurich to study, needless to say, we saw a good window of opportunity to take yet another leap.

Give back to nature more than we take

We knew we wanted to be close to nature, to somehow nurture it, give back instead of only take, take, take. We first thought of Bali or our original idea of Costa Rica, because we both adore diving and love corals and coral reefs. Since years had been trying to set-up a coral restauration project (originally in Mexico), so we decided to follow that lead.

Of course we had to first go check it out and really see what it means to live in a place like Bali. So, off we went. We spent a month there. Did the round tour of the island. We wanted to combine our coral project with a permaculture farm, and because we both love practicing meditation (and yoga), we wanted to include that in our project too somehow. Bali is beautiful and we loved the nature and the people. The corals are breathtaking and the spiritual and back-to-the-roots life-style were easy to find. But we also noticed that the hot humid weather took a heavy toll on our energy levels, and also realized how very far from our kids and family we felt.

We took a step back and reviewed our objectives and requirements. We realized that while the coral projects would have been something amazing, we felt that our life had to be closer to our kids, family and friends of so many years. So a new location had to be found. To make a long story short, Southern Europe seemed to be the ideal place, and Spain or Italy were the two front runners as final destination. A good friend from Italy was visiting at the time, and she recommended we explore the Tuscan Maremma.

After some trips down to Italy, we agreed: it was indeed the area that was ticking most boxes on the criteria we had defined as ideal for us: close to Switzerland, near the sea, rural and hilly (that inspiring Tuscan view), close to interesting artsy cities, and well, not too busy with mass tourism.

Putting out theory to the test

Spending some time trying out a place and getting a feeling for it was a strategy that had proven successful so far in our lives, so we gave ourselves 6 months to try out the life in the Tuscan Maremma country side, and more importantly: what it means to spend your days farming. For this we joined the WWOOF association (Worldwide Opportunities in Organic Farms) in Italy and found a Host farm that offered us the “inside view” of the future life we were envisioning. We both just loved it.

We loved the life as organic farmers in Tuscany

When the time came to answer the question: Would we move to Italy?, the answer was a clear YES! Next step: find our own piece of land on which to turn our dreams into a reality. A place were we can dedicate our time and energy to regenerative agriculture following permaculture principles, and a place that is inspiring and we can share with people who also want or need to reconnect with nature and with themselves (in our experience, often spending time in nature does both). And of course, a place where we can also live out our hobbies and deepen our own growth.

We decided that we wanted a place that could not only be our home, but also host people (a Farm Stay, locally a.k.a. Agriturismo, for guests or receive WWOOFers), and/or host retreats would be a dream come true. By retreats we mean to host not only the classic groups of yoga and meditation, but also coaching, business off-sites, artists workshops, homesteading and healthy cooking/nutrition courses, digital detox, etc. The ideas keep coming!

We found it!

The dream place

We spent the second half of 2024 looking for our dream place. And sure enough, mid-September we found it. Isn’t it funny how you enter a space and you just feel it? “This is it!” That’s how we both felt when we visited the place we have the privilege to now call Home. After the required paperwork, early January 2025 we moved in. It’s been a couple of months of intensive learning, but every morning we wake up with a big smile, a gorgeous view of the rolling hills and olive groves, and more often than not we notice a group of three deer jumping through our land, hundreds of birds, and the buzzing bees and butterflies that are now slowly coming out.

Permaculture in the making

We are now in both working and planning phase. Working on the existing parts of the farm that previous owners set-up (olive grove, small vineyard and orchard, lavender field), and starting and preparing the rest of the Permaculture project.

The house and annex renovations are going on in parallel. Not a boring moment!

So far so good. We wake up smiling and ready for the day. The sunshine is in our hearts and more and more often on our lovely terrace and fields.

So, what do you think? How's your life's dream coming along. In our experience, it's something you walk towards every day. And if you need some time out to think, how about coming to visit us?

In any case, we hope you stay tuned for the development of this exciting project! We will be posting monthly, and sharing here and/or on our Newsletter, so don't forget to SUBSCRIBE! And for more casual and continuous updates, follow-us on INSTAGRAM @inspira-earth!

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