Fulbright at HKS seeks home swap with Florence or house sit in Cambridge

Description

I am a European researcher and university professor coming to Cambridge on a Fulbright Schuman scholarship to spend time at the Harvard Kennedy School. I am looking for a place to stay — ideally a home swap, a house or pet sit, or a friendly rental arrangement with a welcoming host — and I would love to hear from you. I work across academic and policy institutions, and I have spent the last twenty years navigating different European contexts — Florence, Brussels, Paris, Germany and the Balkans — learning that the best way to understand a place is not to observe it from a distance but to live it from the inside. A neighbourhood, a morning routine, a neighbour who stops you on the porch: these things teach you more than any seminar. Coming to Cambridge is, for me, not just a research appointment. It is an opportunity to understand the United States at a genuinely consequential moment — politically, institutionally, socially. I want to follow what is happening not only through the brilliant people I will meet at HKS, but through real life: the local coffee shop, the Sunday paper, the conversations that happen when you are not performing anything for anyone. That is why I am not looking for an anonymous furnished unit. I am looking for a home, and ideally for a person or a family who would find it meaningful to have a European counterpart in it — someone who can water the plants, look after the cat or dog with genuine affection, keep the house exactly as they left it, and perhaps, if you are around, trade perspectives on what is happening on both sides of the Atlantic over dinner or a glass of wine. About me: I am a nonsmoker, tidy, responsible, and very used to caring for other people's spaces and animals. I am quiet by nature, professionally self-contained, and entirely trustworthy with a home. I have references — academic, professional, and personal — and I am happy to video call before any arrangement is made. What I can offer in return: If you are planning to travel to Europe during a period that overlaps with my stay, I would be genuinely delighted to discuss a swap. I have a comfortable flat in Florence — walking distance from the Arno, good light, a small terrace — and connections in Paris and Brussels that could make an extended European stay easier to plan. But I am equally open to a straightforward rental with a human landlord rather than a management company, or a house or pet sit for someone going away. If any of this resonates, please do get in touch. I would be glad to tell you more about my research, my life, and why I think the people I meet in Cambridge will end up being the most important thing I bring back to Europe.