Beautiful Ruins

Pasquale Tursi, arguably the main protagonist of Beautiful Ruins, is a hardworking, loyal hotelier from Porto Vergogna, Italy. He runs The Hotel Adequate View and shares his late father’s dreams of transforming his town into “an American getaway” (5). He is his parents’ third and only surviving son. His mother, Antonia, named him “Pasquale” since the name is Italian for “Passover,” and she saw him as a “bambino miracolo” that signified her futile plea for God to keep her other son, Guido, alive in WWII. Being partially Ligurian, Pasquali has “lovely” (10) blue eyes. Blue eyes are an unusual trait for Italians, and Pasquale’s signify his status as an outcast amongst the other residents of Porto Vergogna and set him up as an exotic, attractive potential love interest for Dee/Debra, the novel’s “leading lady” (although he is ultimately “passed over” like an extra as Dee/Debra truly wants Richard Burton).

Walter emphasizes Pasquale’s hard work and dedication at the beginning of the novel by showing him “chest-deep in the cold Ligurian Sea […] tossing rocks the size of cats in an attempt to fortify the breakwater” (1). Despite his engagement in grueling physical tasks, Pasquale is more bookish than the labor-hardened fishermen in Porto Vergogna.