Описание:

ITALY, TUSCANY, PISTOIA, PESCIA

REDUCED!

This house must have been here from the beginning of time" wrote Don Carmignano, the village priest who researched its history.
According to documents he found in the archives of Lucca, the mill existed in the year 800. In the 12th century it was mostly destroyed by the neighbouring town during a war, in an effort to starve the population and it was rebuilt a hundred years later. The owners of the mill were the lords of the area. Through all of its existence up to 1977, the year it was abandoned, only three families owned the mill.

As soon as you leave the public road and head through the olives down to the property, you enter another world, enchanting and magical.

The house nestles in a forest, bordered by a stream, a waterfall and a little lake. From the house up to the vineyard stretches a Roman road flanked by fruit trees, an olive grove to its right and a vegetable garden to the left. That road leads to the village of Colle di Buggiano and goes on all the way to Modena (on foot or horse only). Peace and harmony rule the place, the only sounds are of water, birds and church bells. The nicest companions are the dragonflies in the sun and the fireflies at night.

The house was an old olive press, previously a flour mill as well, it is known by the locals as "Il paradiso" or "Little Switzerland" due to the coolness in summer, the cold spring water (it runs right outside the kitchen), available food in war or other bad times (oil and flour).

The "frantoio", the olive press, was abandoned 34 years ago and was transformed into a home 12 years later. The area includes a chestnut and nut forest, a vineyard, an olive grove, fruit trees, a vegetable garden and a chicken-coop. Fully self-sufficient.

Inside all rooms are large, perfectly proportioned, and the house retains its old character and enfolds whoever enters.

The main entrance leads to a hall, on its right the dining room, on the left the living room, together they form a wide open space divided by an old arch, (there is also a guest bathroom and a laundry). The kitchen (and pantry) is beyond the dining room and its door is used by everybody to enter the house. With a dining table, a small sofa and a fireplace, it makes a lively central room.

Behind the house is a terrace for dining and a lawn for relaxing. In front a spacious courtyard with a 'capanna', a roofed space (with a big old table for big parties), outside the main entrance is a sitting area around a large millstone for drinks. Another mill-stone dining table overlooks the waterfall on the other side of the Roman bridge. All outdoor sitting spaces overlook the river. The bridge connects and separates the living and agricultural zones.

Inside you go up to the second floor by one of two staircases, each leading to another part of the upper floor. There is also a lift. There are are four large bedrooms, four bathrooms, an outdoor shower on the balcony, a dressing room and a study. There is a lower study that doubles as a bedroom next to the guest bathroom.

The house is cosy in winter with double glazing and central heating and there are also three large fireplaces, in the upper study, the living room, and the kitchen. The forest supplies plenty of wood for the fireplaces. Cooling is natural, one never feels the heat.
The adjacent small house contains two bedrooms, one above the other, two bathrooms (one outdoors), the "cantina" where the wine is made and kept, the 'limonaia', where the lemon trees are kept in winter and garden tools in summer, both rooms could be made into bedrooms by transferring their contents to the cellars under the house, of which there are 5 big ones, one containing the original wooden horizontal waterwheel.

In the small house there is also the (locked) garage (outdoor parking for 5-6 cars is in the 'piazzetta' under a canopy of white wisteria). An old outdoor wood oven, the boiler room and a separate hut for the tractor and heavy machinery. The paved passage to the house runs between two walls, the wall of the house and the swimming pool wall, the pool lies next to the "lagetto", the little lake, blue and green, some summers the green water-peas are allowed to cover the surface enabling the water lilies and the lotus to dot the green, in other summers trout play in the clear water, the lake is bordered by apple and pear trees. Above the pool, in the shade of two very tall old cypresses, is an after-swim relaxing area.

The area of the estate is some nine acres, most of it chestnut and acacia forest, but with a large vineyard (producing 400 bottles/year) and two olive groves (25 kg./year).

The floor area of the two houses is some 288 sqm. The basement 61 sm, the little house about 100 sm. One can get a glimpse of the house from the hill above only in winter, when the trees are nude. Modest and serene when approached, its mystery, beauty and harmony unfolds on entering.

Crowned by two fine medieval villages, Colle di Buggiano (with a good restaurant) and Buggiano Castello.

The little town of Borgo di Buggiano is about six minutes away and has all amenities, the town of Pescia with its good hospital is 15 minutes away as is Montecatini, the motorway entrance 12 minutes, the distance to Lucca on the motorway is 12 minutes, Pisa airport 45 minutes and Florence airport 30 minutes.