Thanks! No, it's not a composite. I "assembled it" on a table (my home made studio) . The colored map is resting on a few books to raise it a bit , and the background is from another book resting agaist the wall.
The background is from an amazing book which is a panoramic sketch of the cost of Dalmatia, as seen from a boat. Opened up it's like 5 or 6 meter long...I bought it many years ago, before my photographic passion, so I must have alway had a fascination with panoramas ;-). The colored maps are reproduction of antique maps from Italy