When she was 21 years old, she married Sisto Vannini, by whom she had 6 children.
Sisto was a land owner as well, and there are rumors he was proud of saying he could go to the church passing only on his lands.
An honest and upstanding man, devoted to his family and his work, generous and correct with his sharecroppers, Sisto and his wife Ruffilla enjoyed an equal relationship, as revealed by some wonderful handwritten letters sent to her during the first world war. They were found in a drawer on the property.
During the second world war, the house became part of a German military district along the Gothic Line.
One of the grandchildren, now eighty years old, narrates how the German officials kept counting the windows inside and outside the house to understand how many rooms there were. They never found the room where resistance supplies had been walled up.
Even the tunnel that brought the water to the mill's blades was very important. It saved the lives of many young people who hid in it during periodic sweeps conducted by the Germans.
