The beating heart of the project, is the reception center “Il Mulino” of Fabbriche di Vallico. The recently renovated stone building is located above a rocky ridge overlooking the confluence of the Turrite Cava stream with the Rio Selvano (or Pilli), where one of the main routes that we offer starts.
There are no certain historic documents to trace exactly when the mill was built, but the engraving dating 1568 on one of the cornerstones on the back allows us to confirm its existence since the first half of the sixteenth century. It is said that the structure was originally a small fort built to defend the surrounding area, then it was turned into a customs station (being near the border between the Duchy of Modena and the Republic of Lucca) and then it was used as a mill. The same construction techniques are found in the neighboring buildings forming sort of a little village. These buildings were probably houses or «metati» (small buildings for drying chestnuts, whose cultivation has always been very widespread throughout the area).