On a hot and sunny afternoon in late June, hundreds of Italian locals gathered at Honeydew, a newly formed eco-community that’s looking to combine old tradition and modern ideas into an ecological paradise for everyone to enjoy.
Founded under many of the same principles that defined intentional communities during the 1970s, Honeydew is looking to change the movement’s track record by actively engaging with the local communities where they set foot.
From the get-go, founder Benjamin Ramm was cognizant of the fact that many spiritual communities have historically held local people in disregard and is calling for a greater level of humility and engagement.
Anonymous urban life has left many of us millennials struggling with loneliness. I went looking for a solution
As a child, I knew that the inner-city, activist community I grew up among in Cleveland, Ohio, was quirky (and as a high schooler who just wanted to be normal, I was even embarrassed by parts of it). People left their doors unlocked, popping in with a knock to announce themselves while out running errands or walking the dog; we spontaneously gathered for potluck dinners in someone’s backyard; loud conversations about counter-cultural movements like pacifism and leftwing Catholic “liberation theology” seemed, to me, just the way of the world.
Now “community” is something my generation, the millennials, are increasingly seeking out.
Ever dreamed of abandoning the city to live in the bucolic landscapes of central Italy? It’s easier than you think.
“I just felt something was wrong,” says Lucilla, a teacher who lives in the small Italian city of Mantova.
Together with her husband Stefano and two children, Dario, aged eight and Leila, six, she had moved to Mantova to escape the frenzy of Milan. But they still felt unfulfilled and anxious, and were worried about how their children were growing up.
Constant rushing and stress, feelings of isolation and entrapment, lack of community and alienation from nature. The symptoms were clear. And the cause, they reasoned, was the urban lifestyle itself. “The city is killing us,” says Lucilla.
