Planted with olive trees and wild rose bushes, the Ranieri castle sits atop an Umbrian hill, where the world’s greatest little office and kitchen make dreams come true for a group of fellow artists working in the shadow of Piero della Francesca. Civitella Ranieri gave me what wouldn’t have been given anywhere else: the direct gaze of Umbrian light, the precision of its shadows, the screech of the barn owl as a reminder of the kind of urgency I want to express when I write.