House exchange Chiavenna Italy - Stanford University area

Description

We are a retired couple planning to visit our daughter, who will be conducting research at Stanford University for up to three months starting January 2026. She is doing a post-doc in Psycholinguistics and Cognitive Neuroscience. We’re looking for a simple, comfortable place to stay during that time. I am a retired musician and former tenured professor at the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado in Milan. My wife is a retired archivist from the State Archive in Milan and enjoys painting watercolors. We expect to spend much of our time with our daughter and her family. We plan to rent or lease a car, so parking availability nearby would be appreciated. Ideally, we would like a space with a private entrance, at least one bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen. We are not demanding—our main priority is a quiet, functional, home-like space. For context, we live in Chiavenna, a charming small town in the Italian Alps known for hiking and skiing. It is about a 45-minute drive to St. Moritz, Switzerland, and 20 minutes to the Madesimo ski area, with excellent skiing also nearby in Valtellina. Lake Como is half an hour away, and Milan about an hour and a half. The area is well served by trains and buses. Chiavenna offers a public swimming pool, a sports center (including a winter hockey rink), gyms, and many excellent restaurants featuring local specialties. Our home is modest but well organized, with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom on the second floor (accessed by an outdoor staircase), and a spacious studio and bedroom on the third floor. There is no elevator, so stairs are necessary. There is also an outdoor terrace that is quite spacious. The house faces south, so the sun shines through the living room windows all day. We are accustomed to compact, functional spaces and a simple lifestyle. Although we do not have a garage, free parking is plentiful nearby. We would be grateful for any listings or suggestions that fit our needs.