Gloria from the Pisa vacation rental “Behind the Tower” and I, Alexandra from ArtTrav, have teamed up to offer a prize in the 2012 Passports with Purpose charitable campaign – proceeds go to providing clean drinking water in Haiti. Do you want to win four nights in Pisa, a great starting point to explore both the city and the surrounding areas of Tuscany? Read on to find out how to bid, what you’ll win, and why we’re doing this… and why you should too.
How Passports with Purpose works
Passports with Purpose is a charity founded by (female!) travel bloggers who every year since 2008 have raised awareness and money to fund something worthy in the world. Travel bloggers participate by getting people they know to donate prizes and promoting that prize on their blog. Anyone can enter this “sweepstakes” with a 10$ (USD) entry and can bid multiple times on multiple prizes. All that money goes to charity, and you have a great chance of winning in the random prize draw. Please look at their website for full rules and information.
Pisa prize description
I teamed up with my friend and fellow blogger Gloria (you all know her from At Home in Tuscany and our Italy blogging roundtable, right?) who owns two fabulous vacation rentals – the fantastically well located Behind the Tower in Pisa and the cute little Casina di Rosa in Civitella in the Maremma area. We chose to offer 4 nights in Pisa because it’s a great weekend break from the UK, or a starting point for a longer trip in Tuscany.
If you win this prize you will get 4 nights at Behind the Tower:
- This one bedroom apartment sleeps 4 (2 in the bedroom and 2 on the pull-out couch)
- It is made up of three rooms: a kitchen with sitting area and pull-out couch, a large bedroom with a queen-sized bed, and a bathroom.
- The kitchen is newly renovated and fully equipped
- There is heating and air conditioning
- There is also free internet! You can use the city’s free wifi system or, if you have a laptop, your host will provide a cellular internet key for your use during your stay. Internet’s so important, we know it!
- All linens and final cleaning are included
- Free airport or train station pickup upon request
Please note the following important things:
- NO weekend check-in – i.e. you cannot check in on Saturday or Sunday (because our hosts are tending to their place in Maremma), so you can only arrive on any weekday (and eventually leave on a weekend day). Like we said, that’s perfect for a long weekend!
- Guests must only pay the city tax for Pisa: 1.5 euro per person, per night, payable upon arrival.
- You may claim your prize in the year 2013. There are NO blackout dates or exclusions, and no extra charges.
- Booking is subject to availability; if you win you will be put in contact with Gloria right away and the earlier you book, the better it is.
For full information on this apartment and its features, see here.
See posts on Gloria’s blog for things to do in Pisa.
How to donate and win this prize
To participate, go to Passports with Purpose’s DONATE page. You can bid on this prize, and also take a shot at many other great prizes.
Drinking water is important!
This is my first time participating in PWP. I heard about it from one of the founders while at a travel blogging conference in Umbria earlier this year and I was particularly impressed at the scale of the project and what we bloggers are able to do when we work as a group for a common goal.
This year’s charity is Water.org and the goal is to build a well for a community in Haiti. Water has been on my mind a lot lately, since it’s November and here in Tuscany there have been terrible floods (November’s a bad month for flooding in Italy, as you may know). Gloria’s Maremma – which I now consider also “My” Maremma – has been hard hit (she writes about that here).
Right now, these places have too much water, and with that comes mud, mudslides, ruined houses, and ruined water supplies. The communities affected are already at work cleaning up, and clean drinking water has been restored in most areas.
In Haiti, which was also recently hit by natural disaster, nearly half of the population do not have the luxury of drinking water and sanitary toilets, things we take for granted. In the information provided about water.org in this post on the PWP website I was struck in particular by one thing: women and children are the hardest hit by this lack:
Children are the most susceptible to water-related diseases like diarrhea, and women and children bear the primary responsibility for collecting water and for the domestic chores associated with its use. […] Can you imagine facing the impossible choice of giving your thirsty child contaminated water or no water at all?
The answer to this problem is relatively simple, and has so many positive ripple effects. With clean water and a healthier population comes more opportunity for schooling and progress. I personally will be bidding on a few prizes and am happy to know that I can contribute both promotion and money towards the goal:
The $100,000 goal will enable Water.org to work with communities in Boucan Carre and Mirebalais to build five new wells. Each well will serve an average of 370 people.
Please bid on this or another prize at Passports with Purpose… and spread the word!
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