When St Francis renounced his worldly possessions and left in quest of spiritual purity, befriending wolves and other animals along the way, it's a mystery whether he was receiving the words of Christ or acting on symptoms of PTSD caused by battle and imprisonment.

What's not a mystery is why St Francis felt such a strong connection to nature in his native Umbria. The same goes for Alessandro, our host at Le Mandrie di San Paolo, the agriturismo where my wife and I stayed during our visit to the region, which lies tucked quietly next to Tuscany.