Each visit to Italy we return to the little slice of the Ligurian coast called the Cinque Terre (literally "the five lands"), despite the recent crowdedness of its streets. Of course the streets of Firenze have these kinds of crowds, even Siena . But there you expect the mobs; those are actual cities, designed for and glorying in visitors everywhere. Not so these little towns.

I have written certain disparaging comments about the un-comely visitors swarming the rail stations, bleeding out into the narrow streets, rendering them less charming than before the train rolled in. Please understand that while I stand by those comments still, we nonetheless insist on coming back here.

Is anything more Italian than the leaning tower in the Field of Miracles in Pisa? You sight it from among the more ordinary (more vertical) buildings in this part of town and, no matter where you've been, regardless of your preoccupations of the moment, you are now in Italy.

Yes the nearly erect thing is memorable, but be sure to allow sufficient time to absorb the beauty of the adjacent duomo here.

We had read about Lucca, unspoiled town just up the highway from Pisa. Explored on a holiday, few other visitors around. The duomo was pleasant outside, pretty essential inside: none of the sense of extravagant art you come to take for granted in such buildings.

For us the exquisite treat happened on the old walls as we were treading the ramparts, a group of costumed teen and twenty-something people playing drums and trumpets in the medieval manner. The video captures something of the excitement if not, alas, the sounds.