Andrew Sean Greer

And also in this book, he arrives, he's 21, 22 years old.

He thinks he's getting this very serious archivist job in Italy.

And it's anything but.

But the person telling the story is himself...

in his 50s.

So he's sort of looking back and seeing what a fool he was when he was young.

A useful thing for all people to remember.

I first noticed it when a friend, there's a character named Oscar who's based on a friend of mine, Max, from Italy, he...

He came from Genova, and he brought pesto.

And everyone was very, very excited.

And as an American, I think in Italian restaurants, they always have pesto on the menu.

And not in Italy.

And it had to be explained to me why you would never dare have pesto in Tuscany, because the basil isn't right.

And you can't just bring the basil.

It has to be done in Genova.

Otherwise, you must never have it.

Absolutely.

And then the story I remember being that someone visited, he'd been to Pisa, which has been in a war with Florence for a few hundred years.

And he told about a traffic accident where the Pisa guy had hit someone in Florence.

But the Pisa guy told a police officer, but the Florentine guy is not even supposed to be here.