A two-week cocreation journey at Borgo Orfeo

On 21 June 2026, a group of students arrived at Borgo Orfeo.

They came with a project.

They came with ideas, curiosity and fresh eyes.

And for two weeks, they became something much more than visitors.

They became custodians of our Borgo.

Not owners.

Not tourists.

But young people temporarily entrusted with a place, its stories, its spaces and its possible future.

And what unfolded during those two weeks became one of the most meaningful milestones in our cocreation journey at Borgo Orfeo.

First, they had to feel the place

During the first days, we didn't rush into the project.

We explored.

We walked through the different houses and spaces.

They experienced the rooms where they would live — in Maria Grazia's house and on the lower floor of Alberto's house.

We explored Roberto's house.

We looked through windows and admired the extraordinary Umbrian landscape.

We walked through the nearby woods to an ancient Etruscan tomb, more than 2,500 years old.

We tuned into nature.

Lucy, an English artist who has been living in Umbria for around 15 years, invited us into a sketching workshop.

And then we gathered around food.

Together we prepared a pizza evening and brought Maria Grazia's old pizza oven back to life.

The Borgo was beginning to speak to them.

Through its buildings.

Its history.

Its nature.

Its people.

Its food.

Its creativity.

And its views.

Then they stepped into the wider community

We also wanted them to experience the world around Borgo Orfeo.

So we looked for local events where they could simply taste the local dynamics.

Marcus went with them to the Montone Blues Beer & Music Festival.

The following day we visited Solomeo and its annual summer cultural music event.

Different villages.

Different people.

Different expressions of local life.

They were beginning to understand that a place is not just its buildings.

A place becomes alive through the people who live, meet, create, celebrate and share there.

And all the while, something else was taking shape.

We were preparing for 28 June.

THE LONG TABLE 🌿

On 28 June, just one week after their arrival, we held our first presentation.

And then we gathered around a long table.

Around 30 people came together.

Neighbours.

Owners of the houses in the Borgo.

People connected to the village.

People curious about its future.

The students.

And us.

There was shared food.

There were images.

Ideas.

Questions.

A first wonderful vision of how Borgo Orfeo could potentially be transformed physically.

But most importantly:

there was a feeling.

People weren't just looking at a presentation.

They were beginning to see something together.

And then Nicola, our young farmer neighbour and third-generation connection to this land, shared a memory that touched us all.

He remembered these long tables from his youth.

Going back to around 1986.

Tables around this time of year.

Food.

Life.

Joy.

Laughter.

Community.

And he expressed how happy he was to see this cocreation spirit opening again.

Something that had once been such a natural part of life here…

had slowly disappeared.

And now, almost forty years later, we were sitting around a long table again.

It felt as if we had picked up a thread that had been waiting for us.

FROM VISION TO CREATION

The presentation wasn't the end.

It was the beginning of another layer.

Over the following days, we went much deeper into the details.

We listened to the feedback from the first gathering.

We looked again.

Discussed.

Adjusted.

Imagined.

And we also started clearing some of the physical spaces.

Because a vision becomes something different when you begin to move things around in the real world.

There was a second presentation four days later.

More detail.

More clarity.

More feedback.

Another layer of the vision taking shape.

And once again, everyone contributed in their own way.

This is what made the experience so special to me.

Nobody was creating alone.

Everyone brought something.

Ideas.

Energy.

Experience.

Memories.

Practical skills.

Questions.

Connections.

Enthusiasm.

And suddenly the many relationships we had been building since we came to live here in 2021 became visible.

All those years of conversations.

Trust.

Small gestures.

Getting to know people.

Being present.

Building bridges.

They had become the invisible glue that allowed this moment to happen.

And I could feel my own role very clearly too:

communicator.
connector.
enthusiasm-spreader.

Not the person with all the answers.

But someone who could bring people, ideas and possibilities together.

And watch what happened between them.

THE FINAL DAY 🌊🎶

After two intense weeks, there was one final day.

We cleaned up.

We put things back in order.

And then…

we went to Lake Trasimeno.

A moment to breathe.

To enjoy.

To simply be together.

And then we finished the experience in another very Italian way:

music.

We went to the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia.

And the owners of the Borgo gave each of the students a beautiful Umbria Jazz Festival 2026 T-shirt as a little extra thank-you gift.

A small gesture.

But one that carried a lot of meaning.

Because these young people had given two weeks of their lives to our Borgo.

They had lived in its houses.

Walked its paths.

Entered its stories.

Shared its food.

Met its people.

Imagined its future.

And helped us bring some forgotten spaces back into movement.

“MEMORIES TO NEVER FORGET”

At the end of their stay, the students described the experience as:

“Memories to never forget.”

And I think that says so much.

Because perhaps the greatest gift wasn't the project itself.

It was the experience of discovering what can happen when you enter a place with curiosity…

when people trust one another enough to share their ideas…

when different generations and backgrounds meet…

when everyone brings something of themselves…

and when a dream is allowed to become a shared vision.

For two weeks, these students were custodians of Borgo Orfeo.

And in those two weeks, they left something here.

Not only ideas.

Not only presentations.

Not only cleaned spaces.

They left energy.

They left enthusiasm.

They left possibility.

And perhaps most beautifully…

they helped us remember something that Nicola's story had already reminded us of:

this place knows how to gather people.

It has done so before.

And perhaps it is ready to do so again.

A NEW CHAPTER

Looking back now, I realise that this was much bigger than a student project.

It was a milestone in the cocreation of Borgo Orfeo.

A moment where the past, the present and the future sat together around one table.

The memory of the long tables from 1986.

The relationships we have built since 2021.

The fresh eyes and enthusiasm of a new generation.

And a vision of what this Borgo might become.

We don't know exactly what the future will look like.

And perhaps we don't need to.

We are discovering it by living it.

By meeting.

By listening.

By sharing.

By imagining.

By trying.

By adjusting.

By creating together.

Layer by layer.

And that, for me, is the essence of cocreation.

Not one person deciding what something should become.

But many people bringing their unique contribution…

and discovering what becomes possible between us.

🌱

The dream is no longer a dream.

We are bringing it to life.

And perhaps this is only the beginning.