Where virtue can even stop the barking

We visited his tomb in the basement of the Basilica of San Francesco, where there was a respectful silence among the few dozen visitors who waited in line to get a close glimpse of the tomb. Suddenly one of those lined up withdrew from the line and dropped to his knees, kneeling before one of the altars. Although my friends and I are not religious, the air of veneration that we experienced during this visit was moving.

So moving that when we eventually went outside into the daylight, I took what the pilgrims inside might have regarded as a step of faith. Before we had set off on our trip, many people had warned us about thieves in Italy, so no sooner were we on Italian soil than I set the digital combination lock on my phone to protect it in the case of loss or theft.

It now occurred to me that in a place as peaceable as this there was nothing to fear, so I turned the lock off.

My feeling of serene reassurance deepened when we arrived in Perugia, the capital of Umbria, about 30 kilometers to the west.

Perugia is spread across a hilltop and surrounding valleys, which means it can be strenuous negotiating some of its steep streets. As we were passing a grocery, an elderly lady approached us and asked if we could help her carry a heavy bag to her house. We happily obliged, and she was kind enough to invite her into her home, which we politely declined.

Later we had dinner in a restaurant in an atmospheric basement setting, and after wining and dining left to go to our hotel As we walked along the dark street we realized someone was calling out to us from behind. It turned out that in the restaurant I had left my bag, which had my passport and wallet in it. Other diners noticed the bag, and the waiter was good enough to run after us to catch us.

Perugia is one of Italy's artistic centers and was hometown to many famous artists, and Raphael learned art here. We were bowled over by the numerous small shops selling locally designed fashion goods and extremely reasonable prices, my friend seeing the city as "a much better version" of 798 Art Zone in Beijing.

Walls five meters wide at least surround the city, and parts of them are hollow. Following a set of stairs, we came across an exhibition inside the walls showing the city's past as well as several photography and art studios. Underlining how much respect Perugia has for art and for artists, the studios are available for use free of charge for artistic use to anyone as long as they book in advance.

We would soon find out that in some cases booking in advance is not an automatic ticket to safe and happy travel. After Perugia, our next two destinations were two hilltop towns, Pienza, about 80 kilometers to the west, and Montepulciano, about 13 kilometers to Pienza's east, both in Tuscany. We bought the bus ticket for Perugia and were told our bus should leave at 2:10 pm. When we got to the bus terminal, imagine how surprised we were to find 20 buses in two lines - every single one of them due to leave at the same time. Yes, 2:10 pm.