People have a tendency to romanticize places like Rome. We think of ancient ruins, glamorous Italians with dazzling smiles and sexy accents, fabulous cafés, and zippy red sports cars. But once you’ve lived there, breathing the toxic-soup air, battling the traffic, and dealing with the inexplicable social code and infuriating qualities of the locals, the beauty of the Eternal City can quickly be forgotten.

It is this reality that journalist Megan Williams presents in her debut collection of short fiction, about expat Canadian women living in Rome. There’s the irate mother of screaming twins who flips off a police officer after he makes her move her car and then spends the rest of the day hiding from him, realizing that she’s miserable, not adapting to Roman culture, and really would like to go home now, please. There’s the young civil servant who is having a gay old time doing as the Romans do until a funeral wakes her from her reverie and she realizes that she’s disgusted by what she’s become – as superficial as her Italian friends.

Williams, a Toronto native living in Rome with her Italian husband and their children, is careful to remind the reader that the city really is wonderful. Despite her characters’ various complaints about Rome – from the abundance of dogshit on the sidewalks to the boring white walls of every apartment – a few of them actually want to be there, even if they don’t realize it until they’re getting ready to hop on the next flight out.

Williams’ journalistic roots come shouting through in her ability to shape a scene, layering elements to create a snapshot out of every paragraph, the focus sharp and the colours bright. Saving Rome is like a postcard from a friend with “Wish you were here” scrawled on the back. Save the airfare and read this book instead.