Photo: Silvia Cassanelli · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Molino Faini

Small museum of traditional Mugello milling in a mill at Grezzano, owned by the Faini family since 1780.

Temporarily closed

Temporarily closed. According to the Visit Tuscany portal, the museum is temporarily closed to the public; no reopening date is given.

About the museum

The mill at Grezzano, in the municipality of Borgo San Lorenzo, certainly existed as early as the 15th century. It was bought in 1780 by the Faini family, who still own it and run the museum; since then it has been a point of reference for the community and for the tradition of milling in the Mugello.

The museum is divided into six sections, each devoted to one stage of the milling process. Visitors enter through the loggia, where the loading and unloading of grain sacks is presented alongside documents on the history of the mill and of milling. This is followed by the room with the millstone and the bolting machine (buratto), which show how the grains are crushed and the flour separated, the section on “fior di farina” (fine flour), bran and “tritello” (middlings), and the space with the commercial account books, which can be consulted at a desk together with sieves, scales and steelyard.

An interactive audio section lets visitors listen to songs, proverbs and fairy tales linked to the mill, while the last section explains how the hydraulic turbine works, with graphics and, above all, a working scale model. Documents, interactive audio, machines and tools evoke the daily life of the generations who ran the business.

Highlights

Museum in six sections devoted to milling
Millstone and bolting machine
Commercial account books with scales and steelyard
Working scale model of the hydraulic turbine
Mill owned by the same family since 1780