What could possibly go wrong when a group of naïve Americans, from a small Southern town, tour Italy as a group? Tour organizer Carl Minton has his hands full as his forty-four clients negotiate cultural differences, interpret Italian through Southern dialects, and encounter unexpected challenges during a tour that includes Rome, Tuscany, and Venice. To complicate matters, Carl and the handsome tour guide, Francois, appear to fall in love, and steal every opportunity to be alone together, while one of the passengers looks for every opportunity to steal. The mishaps include drunkenness, obstinacy and indolence, pick-pocketing, general forgetfulness, and, of course, shop-lifting. Carl's trials are as exasperating as anything in a Kafka novel, but full of laughs on every page. Francois explains the differences between the two societies and Carl manages, in spite of his trials, to appreciate the magnificent Italian countryside and the experience of love and friendship.
