From the Mill Route, which winds along the Gogna torrent, skirting the Poleo-Santacaterina road, the important remains of 6 corn mills can be seen as documentary evidence of the past corn grinding activity in the area and also the only signs left of the handicraft economy which developed and continued for so long beside this tributary of the Leogra.
In the hollow of the Gogna Valley, the numerous springs and tributaries which flow into the mainstream just above Contrada Palladini have favoured the development of numerous settlements, which have been documented since the 13th century. These were able to exploit the abundance of water for domestic, agricultural and handicraft use by excavating canalsand using water wheels to power the machines for iron and timber work in the factories which no longer exist, and this also stimulated the activities connected with textile fibre manufacture.

The presence of forges is connected with mining, as the area adjoining Tretto contained veins of iron, mixed lead and gold as well as kaolin, the famous ‘white clay’.
German workers gradually settled in the districts which can still be found today when following the route uphill, next to the areas already being used for agriculture which also encouraged the building of corn mills; furthermore the nearby Guizza woods favoured the growth of a certain number of sawmills for timber processing.

The itinerary can be followed by car along secondary roads or along relaxing walks through the rich vegetation of the Gogna Valley.

The point of departure is at Contrada Molino di Poleo, on the road which links the Church of S. Martino on the other side of Aste with the Church of S. Giorgio, where the Thiella-Fabrello Corn Mill(1), certified as the property of the Vicenza Counts in 1275, was built.
In the 1700s, it was owned by the Molvena family, known as Thiella, who also added a wheel for the iron forge which was later used for fulling. Fulling work was abandoned after 1850, the forge itself continued to be used until the first decades of the 1900s. The Fabrello family bought the mill from A. Conte, it was closed in 1956.
Inside the mill, the two millstones for white and yellow flour and their respective sifters were turned by two wooden cup wheels which were ‘over-shot’ from a height of 6.8 metres by the water coming from the Munaro Canal. The wheel of the forge which exploited a fall of about 5.5 metres, was replaced by a turbine for the corn grinding machinery in 1945.
The complex of buildings rising up in steps from the pebbly shore of the torrent, with the labyrinth of wheels, transmission shafts and wooden water ducts, created a rather spectacular atmosphere and the construction in stones and stone slabs fitted in well with the surrounding vegetation.
The old premises(2) have been turned into private dwellings which have nothing to do with the real character of the corn mill.

Returning to the main road or following the Palladini road and then the track leading to Bojaoro, the Zanella Corn Mill(3) which is on the right of the valley straight after Contrada Corobolli can be reached by descending a grassy path.
The charging basin was located above this on the corner where the mountain rises; the water was fed along two small channels from the opposite slopes of the adjoining Bojaoro and Troie Valleys and fell onto the over-shot cup wheel from a height of 6.80 metres to operate the mill with its two internal millstones.
Subsequent to corn grinding, a Pelton turbine in a nearby building allowed carpentry work to be carried out.
In 1944, as an act of retaliation, the Germans set fire to the building which today is just a few ruins; the construction of the central part, still visible, is typical of the corn mills in the upper Leogra Valley with their several floors which housed the working area, the miller’s dwelling and the storeroom.
The hole for the transmission shaft, the wheel pit and the holes which supported the ducts from where the water fell from above the path, are all still visible on the west façade.

Continuing through the woods or along the main road as far as Zanei and following the‘Coston del Varo’ track, we reach another corn grinding plant, the Sessegolo Corn Mill(4) in the Bona Valley, flanked by an imposing penstock which powered the turbine by means of its 14-metre fall of water to alternatively turn the internal millstones for yellow flour. It used the old Varo Canal, abandoned and partly closed, which in the past used to power another ancient corn mill for white flour in the same place, having a water wheel which was later replaced by new machinery.
The Sessegolo Corn Mill is incorporated into a housing complex, enclosed by a wall which makes it look like a self-sufficient fortified neighbourhood and creates a spectacular effect. A millstone which has become green with moss and damp can be seen leaning against a wall in among other remains of machinery and collapsed ceilings.
The itinerary can be continued by following the tarmac road as far as Contrada Angelini-Bogotti, after which, on the inside of a bend, we find a house corresponding to the Costa Corn Mill, erected in 1890 and active up to 1942; it had two millstones and was powered by a turbine which used a 6.5-metre fall of water coming from springs upstream.

Descending along the track which skirts the Troie Valley, the Bogotto Corn Mill(5) is found a bit further south, with its one-storey building immersed in thick woody vegetation, it is also used for other purposes by its miller-blacksmith-carpenter owner. An iron beam support and a rusty flywheel are all that is left of a large wooden lathe which used to be in an adjacent room. This large room also served as a storehouse for the sacks of flour. The millstones(6) and the transmission shafts can still be seen in the last room at the end. Two large millstones(7) lean against the façade of the building, while at the back, we can see the end of the penstock with the 12-metre fall of water for the turbine which first operated a sawmill in 1907, then also a corn mill in 1942 which remained in operation up to the early 50s.
Going up the slope we reach the charging basin where the course of the two supply canals can be seen.

Once back on the road we reach Contrada Marsili where we turn onto a wide, well-beaten path leading to the ‘Secco(8) ’ (Lean) Corn Mill (perhaps the toponym(9) alludes to the thinness of the owner) which is the last mill along the mill route; this can also be reached from the Sessegolo Corn Mill by crossing the woods and going along the path taken previously from Contrada Molino.
Records of the corn mill date back to 1759; this became abandoned in 1890 when the Schio water system was built and channelled the water from the spring which used to turn the two wheels by a 7-metre fall of water.
The building with its shelter and annexed storehouses was renovated to be used as a dwelling.

Returning to Poleo, straight after the bridge over the Gogna torrent, we find the former Suppi Factory which was erected towards the end of the nineteenth century; since the thirties it has been provided with corn grinding machinery, first millstones then later rolling mills, and it remained active up to the sixties.