Pasquale's nose: Adventures in a small town in Italy - Michael Rips

Discover the irresistible and indiscreet charms of a small town in Lazio, meet is unusual inhabitants, visit the annual Bean Festival and taste the notorius fagioli regina, the queen of beans (especially in a tomato and pig skin sauce)...

A refreshing antidote to certain well-known books of travel literature, this is the sharply-flavoured and hilarious memoir of a criminal lawyer who gives up his New York practice to spend a year in the 'Etruscan' town of Sutri, near Rome, where he moves - reluctantly - with his artist wife and baby.

Something of an eccentric himself, he has spent his adult life living in hotels. In Sutri he heads straight for the café in the main square. From there he observes the baroque events of small-town life, conjures up a cast of Italian characters (including Pasquale and his hypersensitive organ of smell), and relishes the wonder of Sutri's history, folklore, architecture and above all its food. One of the delights of Pasquale's Nose is that it evokes not only the sights and smells of an ancient and little known town in Central Italy, and brings its people to vivid life, but that it also reveals the enchanting foibles and philosophy of a talented and unusual mind. 

Funny, philosophical and unexpectedly moving, this is the story of how a rootless visitor finds home in the most unexpected place and how Pasquale and his compatriots put life into perspective in the strangest way.