Pasquale's Nose

By Jesse Birnbaum

The medieval Tuscan village of Sutri (pop. about 5,000) is inhabited, says Rips, by sundry eccentrics, among them a blind bootmaker, an old-timer known to possess supernatural powers in the laying of hands on ailing tractor engines and an illiterate postman. In this slight travel memoir, Rips, a displaced Nebraskan, limns the local characters, as well as the Etruscan culture that bred them. These drolleries are best digested over an espresso at a Sutri cafe; failing that, any Starbucks will do.

--By Jesse Birnbaum