Four years ago I chanced to come across a newspaper-feature about Granny Aupair: I had already toyed with the idea to aid my knowledge of Italian with a longer stay in Italy and decided to try this via Granny Aupair. Following the start of my retirement, I started a first try to find a family in Italy.

The first contacts unfortunately did not carry fruit, as on the one hand the contact was cancelled from the Italian side and on the other hand the external circumstances (room, location) of an Italian family did not appeal to me.

It took another year until I came in contact with two families, who by chance did not live far apart from each other (Lago di Maggiore- Lago di Varese).

I arranged a three day visit to each of the families to get to know ourselves better.

I then decided to become a Granny Aupair in the family – a widow with a ten year old daughter – in Bodio Lomnago – a small community at the Lago di Varese.

On the one hand we were congenial from the start, on the other hand I had best circumstances there, i.e. a large room with an own bathroom, a small car for myself, a cleaning and ironing woman, who came once a  week.

My stay as Granny Aupair was six months altogether, divided into three months in autumn and three months in spring. My main jobs were driving to school, to sport and swimming, to music lessons as well as preparing lunch and dinner and sometimes homework help.

I had enough leisure time left to visit an Italian course twice weekly as well as a sport course. Additionally I met up once a week with an Italian business woman to improve her German.

At the weekends I was able to explore the beautiful surroundings like the Lago Maggiore, the Lago di Como and the nearby towns like Varese or Milan.

I spoke German and Italian with mother and daughter, as both of them had a good knowledge of German.

In my case I can only speak of very positive experiences which I had during my stay as Granny Aupair.

If I was perturbed sometimes, it was just about the sudden changes in the daily program, often four children instead of one came home to eat after school or vice versa.

But great flexibility and the motto „it will work somehow“ belong to Italian life.

I am still in contact with the family and the people I got to know there and have just spent two weeks as a Granny in an emergency with “my second family”.

For all future „Grannies“ I would highly recommended - if possible - to get to know each other a bit more with a stay of several days in order to avoid possible mutual disappointment.

For Grannies wanting to travel to Italy: The weather in the North is often very cool and damp in autumn, winter and spring and the temperature in the houses is not very high, so it is strongly advised to bring warm clothing. And if anyone wants to visit a gym course, in Italy you need a doctor’s certificate.