An external retractable staircase leads to the first floor, the real domestic environment of the fortified house. The trapdoor in the vault, in the south-west corner, also had a removable staircase which, once retracted, ensured the defense of the building. In fact, in the absence of a vertical connection, even if the door on the ground floor was broken down, no one would have been able to climb to the upper floors. At the same time, the trapdoor ensured that the animals on the ground floor could be reached to be cared for and fed without having to leave the building, thus avoiding exposure to attacks or danger.
The domestic space, or fire room, as it was called by Lucio Gambi, features a three-story sandstone sink on the northeast side, with drains for water to the outside. A window with balconies on the southeast side was used mainly by women to sit and do some work in the daylight.
Despite Gambi's apt description, Malavilla shows no traces of a fireplace: this feature, which we now consider particularly ancient, only became widespread in rural buildings from the mid-1700s onwards. Before this period, there were other types of hearths, consisting of holes in the wall (sicconia) or in the roof, through which the smoke produced by the fire lit directly in the room could escape to the outside.