What does it actually feel like to raise your kids in an undiscovered Italian village? Ten days. Real locals. Real life. This is your family's test-run for la dolce vita.
"We've been having the 'we should move to Europe' conversation for three years. This is finally a way to actually feel it before we commit."— Family from our interest form
"Clear information and a feeling of safe to jump."
— asked what would make it a yes
"Community. We don't want to home or world school alone."
— family of four, currently travelling
"If I feel this is a place with a true community. Not perfection, but intention."
— family from our interest form
What ROOTS & Future actually is
Over 300 families filled in our interest form. The same question kept coming up: "What would make this a YES for us?" The answer was almost always the same — we need to feel it first. We need to know if our family could actually live this way.
ROOTS & Future exists for exactly that. Ten days of village residency where you're not a tourist — you're trying on the life. And May is Italy at its most alive — wildflowers in the Alps, the village before summer, a pace that lets you actually feel what it would be like to live here.
You'll meet village elders, visit an artisan workshop that's been open for three generations, and walk the spring forest with a local farmer. These aren't staged experiences. They're introductions.
Your kids spend two full days at a local children's art studio. They make pizza with kids from the village. They hike with a guide who grew up here. And each child is paired with a local kid their own age — a real friendship, not a programme.
There are properties available in this village at prices that are almost impossible to believe compared to where most of you are coming from. If you're curious, we'll arrange informal walks. No agents. No pressure. Just looking.
We keep the group small. Everyone eats together, hikes together, explores together. By day four, your kids are inseparable. By day ten, you're already planning how to come back.
Who ROOTS & Future is for
Worldschooling families
You're already rotating through countries. Japan, Spain, Peru, wherever the year takes you. Ormea is your May. A real base. A real village. A real spring in the Italian Alps.
Families considering a European move
81.5% of our interest-form families said moving abroad is one of their primary reasons for being here. This village residency gives you 10 days of real data before you commit anything. What it costs. What it feels like. Who's there.
Families who want something real
No move planned. No agenda. You've been saying "one day we'll do something like this" for years. May in an Italian mountain village, with children who will never forget it, is one day.
Who you are actually meeting
The hotel has been in the same family for generations, and the rentals we use belong to people who live here. The restaurants are run by the people your children will make friends with. The craftspeople who lead your workshops live here. Every person you meet in this programme is someone you would call a neighbor if you ever did move here. By the time you leave Ormea, that part is already done — you won't be starting from zero. You'll already know people.
Village Skills — what we've always called workshops
The museum curator spent decades collecting, restoring, and cataloguing every object in his museum. Nobody paid him to. He did it because someone had to. When you walk through those doors, you are paying for his time — and every euro goes back to the museum. The woman who teaches you to sew has been making things for this village her whole life. What you make in that session is yours to take home. The woodcarver learned from his father. Your children learn from him. These are not activities. They are introductions to a life that still exists here.
Your nonna and nonno
There are people in Ormea who remember when the mountain paths were the main routes between communities. Who know every family in every house. Who can read the season by the smells in the market. Nonna and Nonno are among them. They walk with you through the village at their own pace, on their own terms — the markets, the ingredient sources, the places they've known their whole lives. This is not a tour. It is what happens when you stop being a visitor.
Your cooking class, your guides, your language teacher
The woman who teaches you to cook learned it from her own nonna. The Italian language teacher's family has lived in Ormea for four generations. The guides know the mountain trails because they grew up on them. Every class, every session, every tour is led by someone for whom this village is not a destination — it is home.
The Destination
Mountain air. A cold, clear river below the old town. Chestnut forests on every hillside. Medieval streets that lean into each other at odd angles — built before cars, before tourism, before anyone thought to make them pretty for visitors. They just still are.
90 minutes from Turin airport. 45 minutes from the Ligurian coast. The families we've talked to had never heard of it. That, honestly, is the whole appeal.
Ormea · May 2026
Piedmont · Province of Cuneo · Val Tanaro · Maritime Alps
750m above sea level · Limestone peaks reaching 2,000m+
~1,700 residents · Multi-generational families · Not a tourist town
Turin Caselle (TRN) · 90-minute mountain transfer included
This is not a destination that peaks in August. May is when the Alps are green, the trails open up, and the village is fully inhabited by locals — no summer tourists.
Wildflower season. The mountains around Ormea are covered in wildflowers in May. The air is cool, the light is long, and the valley is at its most beautiful before summer heat arrives.
The landscape is extraordinary: green Alpine meadows, clear mountain rivers, and the village coming alive for spring. The restaurants have their seasonal menus. The village feels inhabited by its actual inhabitants.
The local markets are running and the village rhythms are fully active. You're arriving into real daily life, not a summer version staged for visitors.
May = peak Alpine bloom. Families walk the mountain trails together. The valley is green and the air is cool.
Cool and crisp: 12–20°C by day. Mountain air. Layers recommended. No humidity.
The village is inhabited by locals in May. You'll experience real daily life, not a version staged for summer visitors.
Nearby towns hold market days throughout May. Local cheeses, cured meats, wine, honey, spring vegetables. We'll go together.
There are people in this village who have lived here for 80 years. Who remember when the mountain trails were the main routes between communities. Who know every family in every house.
The village has artisan workshops still operating — wood carvers, textile workers, local craftspeople. A wine producer. A gelato maker who has been making gelato the same way for decades. A mountain rescue school that has been educating foresters for a century.
During the village residency, your family will be introduced to Nonna and Nonno — active village elders who still live and work in the village. They walk with you through the markets, the ingredient sources, the places they've known their whole lives. These are real relationships, not a cultural exchange exercise.
Wood carving, textile work, gelato, wine — all still practised here by families who chose to stay.
We arrange introductions with long-term village residents. Real conversations. Real stories. Unscripted every time.
The village has an active forestry training school with orchards, wine production, and guided forest programmes. You'll visit it.
There are properties available in this village. For families who want to explore further, we can arrange informal real estate walks on free time.
Ormea from above · May 2026
We've built this for mixed-age families. There are activities that split children and adults, and activities that bring everyone together. No one is left in a hotel room.
Children's art lab (full day). A day in the forest at Anna's farm. Pizza-making evening with local children. Woodworking workshop. Kids' pizza party.
Wine tasting with a local producer — in the village. Cooking class with a village cook. Optional real estate exploration. Textile workshop. Italian language sessions.
Guided mountain hikes. Market day trips. Coastal day trip. Village elder meetings. Farewell dinner. Gelato lab. Italian karaoke night.
Babies in arms through teenagers. Solo parents welcome. We keep the group small so every child has peers in the group.
By air: Fly into Turin-Caselle airport (TRN). This is the most direct option. Flights connect from most European hubs and some intercontinental routes via European connections.
Airport transfer: We arrange minivan transfers from Turin airport to the village on arrival day (May 8) and return on departure day (May 17). This is included in the residency fee. The drive takes approximately 1.5 hours through increasingly beautiful mountain scenery.
By car: If you're already in Europe or prefer to hire a car, you can also drive directly. The village is easy to reach by road and has free parking.
Turin Caselle (TRN) · Transfer included in residency fee · ~1.5hr journey
Genoa (GОА) via Ligurian coast road · Nice (NCE) via French Alps · Milan (MXP/LIN) 2.5hrs
Also reachable by road from anywhere in northern Italy. Free parking in the village centre. Road is good all the way in.
The Ligurian coast — sea, fish markets, harbour towns — is 45 minutes away. We go there as a group during the village residency.
The Experience
Every day has a focus — but nothing is over-scheduled. You'll have mornings that are free and evenings that surprise you.
What's Included
One fee. No surprises. Here's what it covers:
Not included
Flights to and from Italy · personal expenses and shopping · gratuities · and anything outside the scheduled programme.
How it works
Every person in this village residency is matched with a local. Not a guide. Not a host. A friend.
Every adult in the group is matched with a village elder — your own host grandparent for the week. You walk the market together. You sit in on the cooking class together. They show you where they grew up, what they built, what they are proud of. You don't need Italian. They don't need English. By Day 4 you won't notice.
Your kids are paired with local children their age. They make pizza together, go to art workshops together, and by Day 3 have stopped noticing the language gap. Your children leave with a real friend. And you leave already knowing people in this village.
Italian immersion — no classroom required
Every day includes a little Italian: a phrase to learn, a challenge to try, a conversation to stumble through. You practice with your nonna. Your kids practice with their village friend. One evening a week, the whole group eats together and speaks only Italian — badly, joyfully, and with a lot of wine.
Village Residency Pricing
May 8–17, 2027 · Ormea, Val Tanaro, Piedmont. The founding cohort runs October 2026 (full). May 2027 is now open — same village, same programme.
Nine nights accommodation · every meal · 15+ activities and experiences · Italian language programme · airport transfers both ways · welcome basket of village goods. Flights, personal expenses, and gratuities not included.
A family of four (two adults, two children) is €9,000.
Payment plans available. Spread the balance between now and April 2027.
Four family spots remain for May 2027.
Deposit is non-refundable. Balance due April 5, 2027. Payment plans available.
ROOTS & Future 2027 — Early Access
October 2026 is full. May 2027 is now open. Families who book May 2027 get first access to future cohorts before any public announcement.
Join the 2027 Early Access List
Who's behind ROOTS & Future
Brave Family Roots · bravefamilyroots.com
Newsweek · ABC Nightline · @bravefamilytravel · 184K
Our daughter has been exploring the world since she was born — 27 countries and counting. We've always believed the best education a child can have is one that happens in the actual world: real communities, real seasons, real people.
We visited Ormea in May 2026. It stayed with us. This is the Italy that hasn't been packaged yet — where the harvest still matters, where families know every name on every street, where May means wildflowers in the Alps and the village comes alive for spring. We left wishing other families could feel what we felt there.
ROOTS & Future is built around that belief — to bring families to the parts of Italy that remain genuinely Italian, and to create the kind of local connection and cultural immersion that changes how your family sees the world.
Latino American family — raising our kids around the world. We'll be in the village with you, May 8–17, our two alongside yours.
Sample schedule
This is the shape and the feeling of it. The running order shifts with the village, the weather and what the group wants, so treat it as a sample rather than a fixed timetable.
You arrive. The village has been waiting.
Sat May 8 — welcome lunch, first walk, dinner together at the school that's been here since the 1800s
The people who built this place show you what they made.
Sun May 9 — museum morning, cooking class, and your first afternoon with your nonna or nonno
What Sunday looks like when you actually live here.
Mon May 10 — kids in the art studio all day, adults at a wine tasting with the local producer
Into the mountains. Into the craft rooms.
Tue May 11 — morning hike with views, woodworking for the kids, a long dinner, and Italian karaoke
Anna's farm and forest. Best gelato of your life.
Wed May 12 — morning at Anna's farm, picnic lunch in the woods, optional night hike to the castle
All day on the trail. The views earn their reputation.
Thu May 13 — full-day guided hike across Val Tanaro, back down to dinner at the square
A day at the Ligurian coast. You needed it.
Fri May 14 — bus to the sea, free lunch, sea light, back before dark
Market morning. The kids take over the kitchen.
Sat May 15 — guided market trip, children's pizza night with local kids
Bikes, needle and thread, the dinner you won't want to end.
Sun May 16 — e-bike tour through the valley, farewell dinner with the whole village
You leave knowing you'll be back.
Mon May 17 — farewell brunch, goodbyes, departure
Questions
Reserve your place
Four family spots remain for May. Choose your next step.
Ready to reserve
Pay the €500 deposit. Your spot is held immediately. Your welcome pack arrives within 48 hours — the full day-by-day itinerary and everything you need before May 8.
Pay €500 Deposit — Book May 2027 →Balance due April 5, 2027 · payment plans available
Still exploring
Join the list. We'll keep you in the loop on May 2027 — no commitment, no spam.
Join the mailing list →no commitment · 2 minutes
Questions before booking?
Email us →2027 opens two residencies. List members get first access at founding rates.
A Brave Family Roots experience · bravefamilyroots.com
Questions? contact@bravefamilytravel.com
May 8–17, 2027, a small group of families lives in an Italian village for ten days. This page is for the 300+ who want to stay close to what happens there — at whatever level feels right.
Your name goes on the founding supporters list — the people who believed in ROOTS before it became something everyone knows about.
A small gesture that keeps you close to the village.
While we're in the village, we open a live video call to this group. You see the place. You meet the families. You're there for a night.
Call details sent by email before May 8.
Your €500 goes directly toward any future ROOTS Ormea retreat — whenever you're ready to come. It's a commitment to the year you show up.
Applied as a €500 credit. Whenever you're ready.
We built ROOTS & Future to be small on purpose. Founding supporters are part of this before it grows — and that's exactly the point.
