Taking solidarity trips means producing truly concrete benefits for the communities you visit. Just pack the desire to approach local communities with respect and show solidarity when choosing the accommodations of your trip to Italy, for example by booking it in one of Fairbnb.coop ‘s pilot cities.

In this difficult historical moment, certainly adverse to departures for distant countries, we can organize solidarity trips to get to know the cultures closer to us in depth, while giving concrete help.

On Fairbnb.coop you will find rooms for rent and entire apartments managed by local hosts, which offer only one home on the tourist market: it will be the key to living a more genuine and authentic travel experience. In addition, half of our platform fee is donated to a community project.

From the redistribution of food surpluses to the poorest families and the creation of nature trails accessible to the disabled, to the support for hospital workers engaged in the fight against Covid-19, here are some of the social projects you can help by booking your next trip to Italy with Fairbnb.coop.

Your trip to Italy, helping doctors and nurses fighting Covid-19

Book a holiday home in one of our pilot cities in Italy and the health workers of the local hospitals, at the forefront of the fight against Coronavirus, would be grateful to you: among our social projects, you can choose to donate half of our platform fee to them.

In Bologna, for example, you can select the Sant’Orsola Foundation as the beneficiary of the crowdfunding.

“Whoever bears more than any other the weight of this emergency – explains the president of the Foundation Giacomo Faldella – is the staff of a public health system that is giving every hospital in our country an extraordinary test of itself.”

The funds raised will make it possible to intervene promptly, in agreement with the health authorities, also in support of intensive care facilities. The projects will aim to cope together with the emergency, but also to improve permanently the conditions in which doctors, nurses, health workers and technicians take care of all of us every day.

Make Venice even more beautiful and clean

A unique historical and cultural heritage awaits you in Venice, unmissable destination of every trip to Italy: book your holiday home on Fairbnb.coop to find it shining! Half of our platform commission will in fact be donated to the Masegni & Nizioleti Association, whose members have been involved for years in carrying out cleaning operations on buildings and monuments.

The “Cleaning Days” periodically organized by Masegni & Nizioleti in significant places in Venice are an opportunity to rediscover its hidden treasures.

The goal of social projects like this is to raise awareness among public opinion, tourists and institutions so that, each in their own area and task, feels involved and responsible for safeguarding common goods.

Alternatively, you can choose to support the Squeri San Isepo project, which aims to bring a Squero, the traditional venetian shipyards, back to its original shape and make it operational, affording it the added function of being a Centre for the study and enhancement of the ancient and traditional maritime crafts in Venice.

The traditions of the shipbuilding squeri are as old as Venice itself, the city being inseparable from its watery environment which requires the use of boats for transport. “Barca xe casa”, a boat is home, as Venetians have said for centuries.

Food in Genoa is not wasted, thanks to your holidays

C.R.E.A. project, Italian acronym for Food Surplus Recovery Center, represents an innovative pathway to fight poverty and social exclusion in Genoa. The operators of the historic Community of San Benedetto al Porto, all of whom are engaged in paths of emancipation and work reintegration, weekly collect edible but no more saleable products from commercial circuits: especially fruit and vegetables, but also oil, coffee, biscuits and whatever else has an expiration date too close to be sold. In this way they are able to distribute free food to those who cannot buy it:

In one year, C.R.E.A. managed to recover over 100 tons of food, and more than 130 families in difficult conditions benefited from the project.

Today C.R.E.A. counts on the support of travellers who book their holiday in Genoa via Fairbnb.coop and thus have the opportunity to finance their activities.

Another option is to contribute to the activities and projects of the Mediterranean Laboratory, simply called LabMed by the inhabitants of the old town: a space of culture and sharing that aims to redevelop the neighborhood by enhancing the social plurality that composes it.

LabMed not only offers the opportunity to meet diversity – of geographical origin, age, gender, personal stories – but also an area of interchange, which favours community cohesion, coexistence and active citizenship.

In Liguria, make nature and tourism accessible to all

While on vacation in the Western Riviera of Liguria, don’t miss a walk along the “Common path in the Terre di Nava” that the local community-based cooperative is creating, thanks also to the donations that come through bookings on Fairbnb.coop.

The path will consist of a circular route, which can be easily covered in about an hour; during the journey it will be possible to immerse yourself in the colours and scents of lavender, collect it and learn about its history, discover plants and aromas, relive contact with nature, rediscover yourself through sensory experiences in the woods.

This experience can also be lived by people who are often excluded from direct contact with nature and the feeling of well-being and freedom that this can give: a part of the donations will in fact be destined for the purchase of a trekking wheelchair and for the creation of information panels in Braille.

On Fairbnb.coop, you can find holiday lettings both in picturesque villages of the hinterland, such as Dolceacqua or Finalborgo, and in modern seaside resorts, such as Sanremo and Pietra Ligure: pick your favourite and help the creation of this Common path!