In reality, we had already had our desire to create something of our own a few years before when, in fact, we have always been attracted to the world of old houses, we got married in the year 2000, after a period of 7 years in which we wanted a family numerous but for various reasons we did not succeed, we decided to buy a new house to give us new motivations and prospects for life. So in 2007 we found a house that seemed to have been forgotten by time, because when we entered for the first time, especially on the ground floor, it seemed to us that time had stopped there many years before , given the state of conservation, still there was a stable with a manger (currently it has become a room) and a warehouse and a cellar (currently the other rooms on the ground floor) all as centuries ago and also given the particular position, set between a stream and the hill close to an ancient Roman road and a fascinating Romanesque church, we decided to buy it and to start the renovation works. So we had our architect do a project and started the work. Once the external and internal excavations began, we realized that the history of the house was much longer than we had imagined, in fact we discovered that it was an ancient horizontal wheel water mill typical of the period at the turn of the year 1000 AD and which probably had its maximum use until the post-Renaissance period, besides all the peculiarity was the presence of two underground lines which are a rarity especially in our area, where there were many mills but much smaller and with only one channel. The peculiarity of the double canal means that the structure was very important for the valley and that the property and management certainly belonged to the church and a convent of friars, even today all the land around belongs to the church and part of the nearby structure behind the mill is formerly a convent. At that point, after this discovery, the initial project was no longer right, so we informed the competent bodies of what was found and we had a conservative and enhancing project of the old mill redone.
During the excavations archaeologists and geologists intervened to give the building the right temporal location, some objects such as pottery and terracotta containers were also found, unfortunately all very broken in small parts. The earth that filled the conduits and the earth that covered the base of the building, probably brought by the rains, was eliminated and so was the shape of the old building built entirely of local sandstone and timber for the floors and the roof that all now they are part of the construction as they are in excellent condition, we used new wood only for the roof of the front portion, and the basin that carried water to the mill so called “Butaccio” was also found, also all built in stone sandstone and pozzolan as a binding lime. Currently this basin has been restored in its original form using the same stones we have made it a tub that can be used as a swimming pool, trying not to spoil its original appearance. The restorations therefore began in the first months of 2007 and then stopped to wait for the approval of the new project, meanwhile our family life has changed a lot since our first two twins arrived in September 2007, a girl (Maria Sole) and a male (Felice) who have given a new course to our life ..
At that point we stopped work as they are very busy in domestic life, also seen our professions, I am a dentist and my wife is the owner of a clothing store and we thought about the growth of our children, indeed we liked it so much that within 4 years the other two daughters also arrived, Bianca Stella in 2009 and Fiamma in 2011. Then, one day in 2013, one of our English neighbors called me saying that he wanted to sell his house and the surrounding land that had belonged to my family in the past, at that point I was facing a crossroads and that is to buy the beautiful property next to mine and give life to a farm with an adjoining farmhouse or to continue the renovation of the mill…. There was no money for everything and therefore I had to make a choice. The choice was not to miss the opportunity to buy back what had already belonged to my family and therefore we decided to buy Villa Ai Cedri and to create a farm and a farmhouse to rent to guests. So thanks also to the help of banks and above all two fantastic people we have created a new business. The two people I mentioned are Ryan Hanley and his wife Debora, who, full of enthusiasm like us and who have recently become “Cortonesi”, have started to collaborate with us to host customers coming mainly from the United States, they have made their ability, Ryan an excellent chef and Debora a very good tour guide and assistant chef, who combined with the beautiful location of the villa (www.villaaicedri.com) allowed us to honor our banking commitments and find satisfaction in seeing a property that had been very neglected flourish.
All this has allowed us to grow our family in every sense both as an involvement in work and in the growth and training of our children, to whom at a certain point we turned to telling them if it was right for them to continue to restore the mill. or sell it, given that even if they were small they had to realize the emotional value that we gave to that house, it was our first purchase and our “dream house” to be created with our sacrifice and commitment, the house where we currently we live belonged to my family so, especially for my wife, it was not a “conquest” but something that she had found again as she had married me and although beautiful and comfortable it did not give her full satisfaction. So we come to the most recent time, that is the end of 2019 when I went to the MRM architecture studio in Camucia which was dealing with the building practices of our properties and I asked him to start the procedures to continue the restoration of the ancient mill of S. Angelo and so between a thousand practices, technical opinions and construction works we have managed to give new life to this structure built 1000 years ago, which has seen so much good and bad history pass through these parts, and since history often repeats itself we hope that the last two years will be part of the “bad” story and that we will have in front of us for a long time only “beautiful things” to share with our guests, with our friends Ryan and Debora and all those who worked for us, I only name the Chief of masons Vilson but the others were as good as he was, plumbers, carpenters, blacksmiths and gardeners, all showed affection for their work and our project and contributed in their competitions nze to enhance everything they have done and built by understanding what was our idea and taste. We wanted to maintain the medieval and rural style of the house without making the environment luxurious, but giving a simple and essential atmosphere but with all modern comforts. We hope that our choices are shared and appreciated and that they allow our guests to spend happy and relaxing moments.
