San Lorenzello

The surprise of a small town in the southern Italian hills near San Benevento may not be surprising to those who live here.

Sunday afternoon in late June. Everyone's asleep after lunch, except two visitors on foot who wander through the streets without knowing what they're looking for other than to possibly see what they wouldn't see at home where they live.

The composition is what catches the eye, how the ancient can be complemented by the medieval and the medieval by the baroque. How certain colors can both stand on their own and come together. How suddenly one can come into a world one's never seen by taking a few steps off the street and into a courtyard where the old world lives with the new.

Later, around 5 p.m., people will come out of their houses in San Lorenzello, meet in the square, have drinks at the little bar whose owner has set up tables and chairs outside, for the weather is warm and the summer light lasts late into the night.

And the visitors are long gone, on to what they trust will be other suprises.