Several of my friends turned 60 this year (I’m not there yet) and to celebrate, 10 of us (five couples) will be sharing a villa in the Italian countryside for a week in September. In fact, my mind is already in Italy, to some extent, as I’ve been reading guidebooks, pulling out old magazine clippings, surfing the Internet, and—perhaps most fun of all—using Google Maps to get a bird’s eye view of some small Italian towns we plan to visit. One thing Google Maps reveals about these small towns is this: Because they were developed long before the birth...