From grain to flour

THE PERFECT MOMENT
  • 2 september – 11.10
  • 24°
  • 290 m
  • Energic

“Using your body to cover a route as quickly as possible, in the most efficient way”: this is one of the definitions of parkour, a discipline that shapes your body and mind. There are plenty of places to try it out in Ticino. Why not combine it with a visit to a fascinating museum?

The sky is grey and it’s only just stopped raining, but it’s warm outside and you don’t want to stay at home. Come on! Put on your running shoes, some comfy clothes and let’s go. You don’t need bright sunshine to explore a region through parkour. All that hard work will be enough to make you sweat. 

No need for videogames, books or smartphones. Fill your lungs with a big gulp of fresh air and your eyes with some stunning landscapes. Are you ready? We’re off! 

Where are we going? Bruzella mill, with its ethnography Museum, where your friend is waiting for you to learn more about its history and secrets. What route are we taking? The shortest and most direct one. No streams, walls, ponds or railings will hold you back: you go your own way, tackling water, distance, gravity and fear head on.  

Parkour in the Mendrisiotto.

Parkour in the Mendrisiotto.

The Breggia Gorges, the rocky stratifications.

The Breggia Gorges, the rocky stratifications.

The Bruzella mill, a world to discover made of ancient knowledge.

The Bruzella mill, a world to discover made of ancient knowledge.

Water becomes hydropower.

Water becomes hydropower.

The Bruzella mill, from prehistory to the wheel.

The Bruzella mill, from prehistory to the wheel.

Wooden gears.

Wooden gears.

Huge granite millstones.

Huge granite millstones.

Part of the sieve of the Bruzella Mill.

What is this?

Parkour is a discipline developed in France in the 1990s. It draws upon instinctive fight-or-flight actions that have been ever-present within the human body since the dawn of time, combining them with the obstacles and features offered by the local environment. While you leap over that canal or climb up that supporting wall, you feel a bit like you’ve gone back in time. Finding yourself on the rocky stratifications that make up the Breggia Gorges, which testify to the region’s incredible geological history, you could almost believe you’ve seen a sabre-toothed tiger behind that plant. 

From prehistory to the wheel. Not a cartwheel though, but the wheel in Bruzella mill. This is a place where you can discover a world of ancient knowledge and find out how water can be transformed into a driving force for grinding corn, wheat, chestnuts and cocoa, or for crushing lime, cutting wood or powering a forge. At least twenty-five mills once lined the River Breggia. This mill will surprise you with its wooden gears, huge granite millstones and very fine cornmeal perfect for making an excellent dish of polenta. 

And what was that strange contraption on the wall used for? 

Claudio Cameroni, - pioneer of bouldering in Ticino
Claudio Cameroni,pioneer of bouldering in Ticino
You might be interested also in the following story
Magnesia powder on your hands and plasters on your fingers: bouldering makes your whole body work.
Read the story
A GOOD DAY
10.00

Departure

11.00

Crossing the rocky stratifications of the Breggia Gorge

11.30

Almost there

12.15

Finally arrived at the Mill of Bruzella

IN THE SURROUNDINGS

USEFUL INFO

Casa Cantoni
april - november 
Tuesday - Sunday
14:00-17:00

Bruzella Mill
april  - october
every Wednesday and Thursday
+ three Sundays a month (consult the calendar)
14:00-16:30

CONTACTS
WHAT TO LISTEN TO

OTHER EXPERIENCES