Malmantile, in the countryside outside Lastra a Signa, was once just a handful of houses along the old via Pisana. Legend says that St. Ambrose, passing through the area, stopped at in inn where the village is today. The future Bishop of Milan asked the owner how he was, who responded that he had nothing to complain about, considering God had given him a life without too many worries.
St. Ambrose, annoyed at the owner’s good fortune, believed him to be in cahoots with the devil, so he cast a curse upon his house. “Mala Mantilia!” he said, meaning “cursed tablecloth,” intended to underline the wickedness of the hotel’s guests. After St. Ambrose spoke these words, the inn owner’s house fell into the depths of the earth, bringing him and his whole family with it. A plaque on a tabernacle just outside the walls of Malmantile commemorates this legend.