“Whatever you do, don’t arrive late. And by the way, I heard the owner is insane.” These words of caution were given to me every time I shared my plans for an upcoming tour I had finally booked to La Scarzuola, nestled in the virtuous little Umbrian countryside province of Montegabbione (Terni).

As I understood from my reading, the destination is “a complicated property”, a 13th-century Franciscan monastery transformed into some kind of surreal architectural dreamscape in the 1950s via what sounded like a surge of pure genius–or madness. La Scarzuola is a pilgrimage for the curious, to say the least.