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Our house in East Tuscany is a 200-year-old stone structure was once a water-powered mill - or a "mulino" in Italian.
Long-term tenants (1-month or more) can use our automobile (free of charge) for local transportation and tours of the region.
The Mulino sits in what feels like our own private valley in the foothills of the Apennine Mountains. The surrounding parcels of land are now abandoned farm land, and the only structure visible from our valley is a medieval tower on the top of the hills behind the meadow.
The Mulino is located in the easternmost point of Tuscany in the township (Comune) of Sestino. The town of Sestino contains four corner grocery stores, a gas station, a hardware store, two bars, two banks, a butcher, a baker, a pharmacy and a restaurant.
Sestino also has a 1000-year-old Romanesque church, a museum of Roman artifacts, a tourism office, and a public library with public DSL Internet access. Sestino is typical of the communities within a 30-minute drive of the Mulino - quiet, friendly, charming.
This area is truly the "undiscovered Italy." Because of the Apennine Mountains to the west, historically, it has been somewhat isolated from the rest of Central Tuscany, yet in terms of American distances, it is reasonably close to many cities and tourist attractions.
The area is dotted by small towns ranging in size from 200 to 3000 inhabitants. All of the nearby towns have historic centers dating to the Middle Ages or before.
This is a region that globalization has not yet touched - there are no hypermarts or convenience stores. The locals still shop at the local butcher, baker and corner market.
The area is predominantly oriented towards le Marche, (the region that borders Tuscany to the East) as all of the main roads follow the Foglia and Metauro rivers east through le Marche into the Adriatic. Le Marche is one of the least known regions in Italy. But it is finally being discovered by tourists. In 2005, the New York Times called le Marche "the Next Tuscany" and published a photo essay and travel guide on its website.
The pleasures of this area remind us of the Italian phrase "the best wine comes in small bottles." After the grandeur of Rome or Florence, many of the experiences in this region may seem small-scale, but they are personal, memorable and relaxing.
Some of the experiences that come to mind include: dining in San Leo on home-made pasta followed by a plate of local cheese that has been aged under a layer of oak leaves; hiking up to the medieval tower to watch the sunrise over the hills; cooking hand-made sausages from the butcher shop in Sestino on a camp fire in the yard of the Mulino; and listening to a cloistered choir singing evening vespers in a convent outside Urbania, or hunting for antiques in Arezzo.
The relaxed pace of the region also makes it a safe, easy place to vacation with children. Our young children love to go hiking, berry picking, fossil hunting, and boulder-hopping in the dry creek. The beach is an hour away, and there are numerous old fortresses and other sites to explore in the area.
We purchased this house in 2005 and finished the renovations in early 2007. You can find more photos and information about this wonderful house by searching on the web for "mulino di Monteromano". |
