Former Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Paul Willis reads from his latest publication, Orvieto, on Thursday, March 12 at 6 pm at Chaucer’s Books, 3321 State St., Santa Barbara.

What happens when an American poet most at home in Yosemite is summoned to teach in the faraway land of Italy? In the tradition of Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad, Paul J. Willis comes to terms with the Umbrian town of Orvieto in a suite of poems that are sure to land in your memory and imagination. By means of research, experience, observation, and, perhaps, more than a small dose of naivete, he fills his verse with the strangeness and wonder of Etruscan, Roman, medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary times that layer this resilient city. An interweaving of past and present, pagan and Christian, and art and nature creates a rich tapestry for any eager visitor to place or poem. Come and see.