ITALY: The Exploding Boots

The ladies liked Lieut. Gualtiero Gualtierotti, a handsome cavalryman with a toothbrush mustache and a roving eye. Behind his jingling spurs he left a trail of broken hearts. One day in 1936 a pair of black riding boots was delivered to his apartment in Rome. Said an accompanying note, written in a feminine hand: "To Rome's best pair of legs, from an admirer.

In vain Gualtierotti tried to discover who had sent the boots. He was still puzzling three months later when he was promoted to captain and transferred to another regiment in Brescia, 275 miles away, There, for the...

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