History
Our Flour Mill was built more than two hundred years ago, between two waterfalls that form part of the stream known as “ Rio di Pigli “, which flows alongside the house. Even nowadays we are gently lulled by the sound of its waters, when all around elsewhere there is only silence.
So the house was originally the miller’s home, built one storey above the actual Mill itself. In fact, we can still see the mill’s original stone reservoir, perfectly intact ( and now playing host to our vegetable garden ! ), which was at one time full of water diverted from the Rio further upstream. The water would then go crashing down into an underground chamber beneath the mill where the machinery that drove the grindstones was housed. The grindstones themselves are still on view as an integral feature of the property, in perfect condition.

When we caught sight of the Mill during a countryside walk in search of blackberries one Sunday in September all of twenty-five years ago now, we found this house overgrown with vegetation, in a bad state of repair, but basically untouched. It had been left abandoned after the death of its two elderly occupants, a childless couple ( Michele and Maria ), who had lived there peacefully together for more than sixty years.They had been well-loved by the locals, who even nowadays remember them affectionately and stop to tell you amusing anecdotes about them.
Unspoilt memories relating to that magical place full of life were also instantly rekindled in the heart of the current owner, who had spent his childhood only a few kilometres ( miles ) away and who used to walk out there from time to time.
We decided not to let either those memories or that house die, a house which attracted us as if by magic, so much so that we felt we wanted to make it our home at once, leaving the town where we lived and starting a new life. We worked very hard throughout the following years, both around and inside the Mill, gradually converting it and adapting it to our new requirements, in order to accommodate our children, but at the same time always respecting its structure and its natural surroundings.

Geographical Background

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Tuscany was ruled by the Grand Dukes of the House of Loraine, drainage and land reclamation work of the marshy ChianaValley ( Val di Chiana ) was energetically resumed and was completed by the end of that century. Thereby a project was accomplished which had been significantly influenced by the research and mapwork of Leonardo da Vinci.The new land which became available attracted large numbers of families, who settled there in typical, so-called “ Leopold-style “ houses, square in shape with a central tower, the “ dovecot “.Watermills were constructed along some of the streams and throughout the nineteenth century they ground the wheat produced in the valley.By the end of that century, however, the introduction of electricity had rendered these methods obsolete and almost none of the old watermills survived.It was thanks to a variety of fortunate circumstances that the Mill of St.Andrea a Pigli was spared, among which were its pleasant, sunny position and its favourable location on a public thoroughfare.But even more importantly, it has survived because those who have lived there have obviously felt that it embodies values which are worth preserving. 

GPS COORDINATES
GPS N ' 43.4041   E ' 11.8561

CONTACTS:
Cell: 328 6810424
e.mail: info@mulinmaria.com

 

Mulinmaria
Localita' S. Andrea A Pigli, 44
52100 Arezzo