600 hectares of fenced land within the Sismano estate are totally devoted to hunting different kinds of game throughout the year: shooting can be tailored to your specific requirements. Green hills, vaste spaces and an indescribable silence takes the sportsman back through many centuries and makes him feel totally immersed in unspoilt nature, providing the pleasure of the hunt as it existed long ago.

The traditional season lasts from September to January when game birds such as pheasants, woodcock and partridge can be shot: from October to March we can organize, for parties of not less than 10 guns, private wild boar hunts. Fallow deer and roe deer can also be found within the game preserve by following the advice of our skilled game warden. Duck shooting is also very much sought after around our little lake of Cinella.

From March to August, the Sismano hunting estate is an ideal place to train gundogs either for game hunting or for wild boar: the latter is done in a special fenced in area where dogs are let in at one time and continually supervised by the owners as well as our warden. At the end of a truly satisfying morning, nothing could be better than head back to the Restaurant "I Due Papi" and enjoy a good meal and our delicious wine.

The Restaurant "I due Papi" can be found a few metres away from the Borgo, in the ancient wine cellars and stables of the Castle. The translation of the name of the restaurant means "The two Pope".

This name was chosen based on the history of the castle which was owned by two Popes in the past centuries: firstly Benedetto Caetani, who later became Bonifacio VII, bought it in 1289, when Lorenzo Corsini was made Pope with the name Clemente XII Sismano had already been owned by his family for over a century. The Restaurant is renowned for its local cuisine, where the meat and game from the Sismano estate is cooked in the large fireplace.

It's one of the youngest Communes of Italy. Although it was born in 1975, Avigliano Umbro has a very old and intense history. A history testified mostly by archives, and a bit less by its town centre, because it has been destroyed and pillaged. Avigliano in medieval age and over the centuries, has been an important border castle, longed for by Todi which succeeded in 1220 in snatching it from the lords of Baschi. A domination not so much liked by Avigliano, which in fact rebelled. In 1237 Todi regained the castle and even razed it to the ground. Too hard a punishment: it made the Pope Gregory The Ninth intervene. He sent a severe Warning against Todi. Destruction and death were also brought in 1366 by the mercenary troops of John Hawkwood, still remembered in the popular tradition as Giovanni Acuto, then in the service of cardinal Albornoz.

In 1419 the castle was fortified again, but in 1500 it was ravaged by the Chiaravalles during the siege of Acquasparta. Not much has been saved out of the reiterated sacks and destructions which history reserved for Avigliano. South of the town centre the Porta Vecchia with the arms with the Todi eagle is worth seeing. The Teatro Comunale is a tiny one, but this feature and its Art Nouveau style makes it charming. The Parish Church of the SS. Trinità (1617) has a Virgin of the Rosary ascribed to Andrea Polinori (17th cent.). But the showpiece of Avigliano is the countryside. It's very precious, environmentally speaking, rich in castles and Romanesque churches, as the one of Sant'Egidio, not far from the town centre and the one of Sant'Angelo, located within the cemetery and embellished by many frescoes of good value.

By Dunarobba, three kilometres from Avigliano is the Fortezza and the noteworthy Romanesque country church of Santa Vittorina (11th cent.). Five kilometros from Avigliano is the Fortress of Sismano, overhanging a little hamlet and a good part of the surrounding hills. It's the property of the princes Corsini. The fortress has always played an important part in the Middle Age wars. In 1324, right here, at Sismano, the troops from Todi had a bloody encounter with those from Perugia, Narni, Spoleto and Florence.

Because of its strategic importance in 1340 the castle was further fortified. Besides the castle, the Parish Church dedicated to Sant'Andrea Corsini is worth seeing. It contains two precious works of art of the 17th cent. ascribed to Polinori (a portrait of S. Andrea Corsini) and Palmiro Alvi (Virgin of the Rosary). In medieval age the size and the importance of the dwellings wasn't valued by the census of the population - actually there wasn't any registry office - but by counting the fires, because there was a tax on every fireplace. From the "Ordinamenti di Todi", the town ruling over the territory of Avigliano, it's possible to know that Sismano had 62 fires, Avigliano 76, but the most powerful of all was Civitella Moglie Mala with 97 fires. Probably just because of its power this castle was destroyed. You can still see its remains not far from the stream Arnata.

Montecastrilli origin has to be found during the Annibal life, which passed by here and camped on the "Castrillorum", which in latin means "camping". Before belonging to the papal state, the town was under the power of Todi, and its history was characterised by the fights between the nobles families of Todi all over the 400's.

Of the original town, today remain the walls with towers, on which the two doors Porta Amerina and Porta Medioevale open. It became an independent commun in 1975, and today it includes the small villages of Castel dell'Aquila, Castel Todino, Farnetta, Quadrelli and Collesecco.

The convent of clarisse dating 1400 should be definetly visited; in the parish church of interest is a wood cross of the XV century; nearby San Lorenzo in Nifili of the XI century, is a remarkable example of the umbrian romanic stye.Recently two marvelous paintings coming from the monaster of Montecastrilli have been restored showing San Nicola from Bari and San Bonaventura from Bagnoreggio. Both the paintings, of unknown author, have been done during the first half of 1700. They can be admired in the church of Santa Chiara.

The Dunarobba fossil forest nearby Avigliano Umbro, has been discovered in the 70s, but the work to bring it up to surface are not yet finished. All the trees belong to a family of sequoia which used to be present in this part of italy more than one million years ago.

The particularity with this forest is that the trees lay in vertical position and not horizantally as it is the case for other fossil forests. This would confirm the theory that a flood could have overwhelmed the forest preserving it in the shape we admire today. The fossiles have enormous dimensions: 1.5 m in diameter and between 5 and 10 meters in high.