In the back streets of Old Rome, near the famous Bernini monument, The Fountain of the Four Rivers, La Dolce Vita turns from sweet...to sour. A naïve American tourist gets involved with poets, the Mafia, an opera singer, a movie star, and a film being shot at Cinecittà.

In the grand tradition of Mark Twain, Norman B. Schwartz recounts the comic misadventures of an innocent abroad—neither an Ugly American nor a Quiet one—but someone young who soon learns that within the Eternal City one cannot stay that innocent for long.