Micah Larroque, 21, felt confined from spending too much of his life in Santa Rosa and wanted to travel the world. The former SRJC student and Student Senate president began looking for affordable ways to see Europe.
“After some searching I found the potential of being an au-pair exciting and enticing. It wasn’t till I began to speak with different families that the idea started to become a desire.”
Larroque was just one of a slew of other Au-pairs who chose a family in “The Eternal City” Rome. In a time of rising college tuition and high unemployment rates, the possibility of taking a vacation or exploring a new country and culture seems like a pipe dream. But au-pair opportunities offer temporary employment, a foot in the door to a new country and a way to finance journeys through foreign lands.
The au-pair, or live at home nanny, has become a popular alternative to day-care and after school programs in many parts of Europe. Many parents take this route because it gives their children a chance to practice speaking a foreign language and to broaden their understanding of the world through the influence and tutelage of someone from another culture.
Larroque is employed by a family of three, father Filippo Buchilla, 43, and mother Petronella Alessio, 38, to watch their son, Pantoni, 8, after school. Larroque has watched Pantoni’s every weekday from 2 to 8 p.m. for the last eight months. He picks him up from school, walking from their villa in South East side of Rome just south of the Colosseum, to the bus stop for line 36 to Pantoni’s grammar school a quarter of a mile from their house. Then the two walk home or go onto the day’s planned activities. After school they may play paintball, go home and cook dinner for the family or Larroque may help the boy with his schoolwork. Sometime Larroque has to take Pantoni to doctors’ appointments or soccer practice; wherever Pantoni has to go, Larroque makes sure he gets there safely. But there’s an underlying benefit to all their interactions. Larroque and Pantoni converse exclusively in English. After all, the reason the family picked a candidate from America was so their son could practice English with a fluent, natural English speaker.
Larroques’s host father, Buchilla, has made a very comfortable living in investment banking and now owns not only the villa in which the family lives, but also a villa down the street. Safe to say, he could have easily hired a professional nanny or enrolled Pantoni in an afterschool program, but in the hopes of improving Pantoni’s English and making him more cultured, the family hired Larroque from America.
“We specified that we wanted an au-pair that didn’t speak any Italian,” Buchilla said. “We wanted speaking English Pantoni’s only option with his caretaker and we couldn’t be happier with Micah. We were worried how the two would get along while Pantoni was still beginning his English studies, but Micah was able to keep things light and humorous. He was able to become his friend despite the initial language barrier.”
The family believes they made the right choice. Larroque was able to assimilate into the family quite well, though at first Pantoni spoke little English and had to communicate through his parents. But it was enough for Larroque to establish himself as a friend and mentor of Pantoni rather than a supervisor.
Through the mutual respect that developed, the two have become fast friends and Pantoni has become quite the English speaker. Larroque has picked up some Italian as well.
The young boy’s eyes lit up when asked how he’s enjoyed Larroque’s presence in the family. “Micah’s the best! It’s only me and Mama and Papa so it’s been like I have a big brother. I’ll be sad when Micah leaves in a few weeks. I don’t know what my family plans to do when he leaves, but I don’t think I’d want another au-pair who’s not Micah.”
When asked about his favorite thing to do with Larroque, the answer spoke volumes about Larroque’s influence on the boy. “My favorite thing to do is go hiking through parks with Micah,” Pantoni said. “We look at everyone and joke about the people we see. It’s a great way to practice my English and it’s great because Micah is very funny.”
Larroque is not the only au-pair in Rome. Thanks to a Roman au-pair Facebook group, he was able to make friends in the same field, many from America, and all speak English among other languages. As most of them share the same hours as Micah, during their free time they often go out to bars, dinner or sightseeing. Weekends are filled with trips to nearby towns or for a longer train ride, down through the countryside to Pompeii and the island of Capri or up to Italy’s northern reaches.
Larroque’s au-pair friend Taylor Maloney, 24, is a graduate from Texas A&M who wanted a chance to see the world before enrolling in medical school. So he figured the best way to stay a year abroad would be to become an au-pair in Italy. “I had spent so much time in the U.S. never exploring the world, just focusing and pursuing my dreams of becoming a doctor through uninterrupted studies. So when I heard about the benefits being an au-pair, I chose a country and started searching for a host family.”
It’s a seemingly perfect arrangement. Room and board plus a little spending money for a few hours of babysitting a day. Just get into the program and start seeing the world.
“I couldn’t be happier with the choice I made,” Larroque said. “As my time in Rome has started to wind down I’m glad to be going home to friends and family but this isn’t the last I’ll see of Italy. I could see myself living here one day. But until then I’ll have to get back to focusing on college and getting my degree in engineering.”
