How Montino started

Montino Coliving was co-founded in summer 2024 by Oren Chazan, Talya Stern, Guy Benron, Danit Chazan, and Eldad Givon (an owner from our founding until spring 2026). Each of us comes from a background of love for community or hospitality, and after years of different communities and friendships around the globe, we decided to make a communal space of our own.

Finding Montino

The search took two years. We came very close to finding a place in Portugal, and then again in Spain, until we were lucky enough to find a sweet, small, family-run hotel: a yellow exterior, a red roof, and green windows. We felt the connection immediately. Antonio and Géraldine handed the place over to us just as it was. We renovated it before opening, but we also inherited a professional kitchen that once belonged to the hotel’s restaurant, guest rooms, a classic Italian espresso machine, tables and chairs, and so much more. The Italian couple also stayed on to help us get to know the house, the area, and Italian business bureaucracy; they joined our dinners and are dear Montino friends.

Our vision for this place

We believe connections are best when slowly brewed over time spent together, and that the best way to get to know someone is to share a space, both casually and intentionally: to make experiences together, and to trade knowledge about the things we care about. We believe in openness and inclusivity, that the chance to meet people different from us reveals how alike we really are, and opens the mind and the heart.

Oren Chazan

I have travelled the world for a few years without a base, as the owner of a marketing and business consultancy. At the beginning of 2023, I found that the lifestyle suited me well, but I lacked a sense of meaning. At the same time, I got interested in real estate and started looking into property. What started as a real estate project turned into an answer to that deficiency, in the form of a co-living, Montino, which we officially opened during August of 2024.

I find my true purpose in introducing people to a natural, slow atmosphere, one where ideas, skills, and other gifts are constantly shared by the fire, over coffee, or during dinner.

Talya Stern

I’ve been a digital nomad since 2020. I was a full-time software engineer in the big city, working for a big company, with a hunch that something was missing… but I didn’t know what. Then COVID-19 hit and lockdowns brought me to this new co-living just 2 hours from my city (I had no idea what a co-living even was). I arrived in the opening week for “just a few days” and ended up staying seven months and becoming the community manager. Then the skies opened and I began traveling the world between digital nomad co-livings, coworkings and hubs. It was exciting and wonderful, but then my life took another big turn.

In December 2023 I was hit by a car in Thailand, severely injured, and spent eight months in hospital and recovery. I was still hospitalised and in a wheelchair when we found the Montino House in Italy. My medical state was uncertain, but my heart and gut called me to go for it. I’m now, thankfully, healthy and recovered, and I spend much of my time here at Montino with the community.

Danit Chazan

I’ve always loved the hospitality world, there’s just something special about bringing people together and making them feel welcome. As one of the partners here at Montino, I get to use that passion every day to build a space where you can truly connect, relax, and feel right at home.

Guy Benron

My family moved around a lot when I was growing up, which meant uprooting myself from my home, friends and surroundings every couple of years. With my immediate family being the only constant during these transitions, it shaped the way I view relationships and community, as transient in nature. In my twenties I realized that there are other, longer-lived models of connecting with people, which was great news and also meant impulsively trying to find these connections with everyone around me: let’s be roommates, let’s travel to China for a month, let’s open a bar together, let’s move to Spain with our other couple friends and live our lives together (no bars were opened and Spain remained elusive).

When I learned about the co-living concept in early 2023 it really clicked for me, something about it felt very familiar to my inner child and at the same time allowed the part of me that craves connections to have it as well. I decided to be part of Montino with never having set foot in any co-living before and never looked back.

Come live with us for a while.

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