Compignano is a small fraction of the municipality of Marsciano, in the Umbria region of central Italy. A small village of medieval origin located on a hill, in the middle of the Umbrian countryside crossed by the Nestore river. Compignano is a little isolated from the usual traffic routes but perhaps for this reason – once reached – the town retains a unique charm, that feeling of a particular place, immersed in an atmosphere suspended in time.

Yeah, time. Here it has always flowed slowly and inexorably, marked only by the rising and setting of the sun and the cycle of the seasons. A natural clock that for centuries has accompanied the industriousness of the inhabitants and their ability to live in respectful symbiosis with the environment that surrounds them.

Compignano is hospitable. From a distance, you spot it and recognize it thanks to the bright red tip of the bell tower, which stands out against the thousand generous shades of the earth of the surrounding fields and woods. But then you have to reach it, so following your intuition and the very few indications you have to take steep roads that go up and down the valleys, furrowing ridges and hillside slopes that overlook orderly plowed slopes, without ever losing sight of the bell tower.

When you arrive in the only, small square outside the entrance door, at first you may get the feeling that the village is set in front of you sure of itself and its quiet, almost closed on its own. In reality, the high medieval walls, on which only a passage from the austere tower opens, is more than a defense its tight protective embrace over a handful of houses and some noble palaces of the lords that once were. It is his desire to preserve them intact, jealously guarded and then donate them to visitors. As soon as you cross the door that faces south, in fact, a feeling of “home” immediately welcomes you. A well-kept house with few but tidy rooms, full of precious memories and a lot of life still to live.