The 6 Poortes

The Italian adventure

“Later when we are all grown up, we will start a campsite”, was our motto since college. After our studies, a fun career, 4 kids, some detours and educational experiences we decided that we were ‘adult’ enough and that we would take the jump.

The six of us packed our belongings, put them in a caravan and a trailer, and left on the 11th of September in 2002 with Monteciccardo as our new destination, a ruinous old farm, placed on a hilly field, to make our Italian dream come true.

After our arrival in Italy, we started with our temporary gypsy camp on a campsite in Fano. We were the only guests left in the autumn of 2002, so we received the main key of the campsite, becoming sort of the campsite keepers at the same time. The children crawled out of their tents early in the morning to find their way to the sanitary buildings, take a cold shower, preparing to go to school in Mombaroccio (brought by mum or dad). A real regional school, where they were welcomed as attractions and where it was particularly necessary to learn the language as soon as possible. Something they managed to do quite quickly.

Ourselves, we started the challenge by firstly removing all the weeds that surrounded the farm, so at least we could get into the house. The construction of the campsite came in phases. In the spring of 2003 the plateaus on terrain A were excavated under professional guidance, the stable was transformed into a sanitary area and the pool was built.

In the years after, we continued to build upon the further development of P6P, and in 2007 the second terrain, namely terrain B was constructed.

Now, after having completed a couple of seasons, we can look back to 18 years of intense experiences and emotions. We have learnt that patience is a virtue and that the six of us have become stronger together throughout this journey.

In addition, we have experienced that, here at P6P, we have had the opportunity to welcome and get to know many people we now may call our friends. People who supported us through thick and thin, and were there for us, both in the beautiful as in the difficult moments in time.

Actually that is the most beautiful thing: “experiencing our dream together with the people that we care about and started caring about”.

The 6 Pictures from 2003 :)