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National Geographic
5 days ago
- National Geographic
Find a new reverence for Rome on a thousand-year-old pilgrimage to the capital
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). It's holy week and music is rising from the Chiesa di Santa Maria. First comes the slow sigh of baroque strings, then a wash of operatic harmony as a soprano and alto plunge into the opening lines of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. Outside, a blood-orange sun is slipping behind the sage hills surrounding Vetrella, throwing a square of sunlight onto the church's frescoed walls: a honeyed beam that writes life into the eyes of every painted saint and martyr. I'm coming to the end of my first day on the Via Francigena and already I'm getting a sense of the trail's strange power — though I'm 12 miles closer to Rome than I was this morning, I appear to have stepped further back in time. In many ways, it stands to reason. After all, I've spent the morning tracing one of Lazio's ancient holloways — the sunken roads etched by the Etruscans sometime between 800 and 300 BCE and deepened over the centuries by the footfall of Roman legions, Frankish knights and modern-day pilgrims. After the concert, the congregation spills onto the lawn, where I get talking to blue-eyed Tiziano, who's travelled from the nearby town of Bracciano to be here. 'The springs surrounding this place made it a site of pilgrimage long before the church was built,' he explains, 'and yet most people pass it by without even noticing. For me, it's an overlooked masterpiece.' The same could be said of the Via Francigena itself — a quiet backroad compared to the bustling pilgrim highway that's Spain's Camino de Santiago. The key difference is that the former didn't begin life as a pilgrimage trail, but rather evolved into one, its network of roads originally serving as arteries between the Roman Empire and northern territories like Britannia. The sunken roads etched by the Etruscans sometime between 800 and 300 BCE were deepened over the centuries by the footfall of Roman legions, Frankish knights and modern-day pilgrims. Photograph by Gilda Bruno By the Middle Ages, any pellegrino (pilgrim) worth their communion wafer could be found traipsing towards Rome, where the spirit of St Peter was said to suffuse every root and rock. For the next few days, I'll be following in the footsteps of one such wayfarer: 10th-century archbishop Sigeric the Serious, no doubt a notorious party animal. In 990 CE, he travelled some 1,200 miles from Canterbury Cathedral to St Peter's Basilica — by way of France and Switzerland — to collect his official garment from the Pope. Handily, he documented his return trip, providing a blueprint for today's official Via Francigena route. Tackled in full it's a mammoth 100-day trek, so many pilgrims choose to walk key stages. My own journey takes in the last 60 or so miles to Rome, a five-day hike through cavernous valleys, emerald forests and rarely visited hilltop towns. The route is liberating in its simplicity — so long as I make it to my B&B each night, I should reach the Eternal City just in time for Good Friday. The wandering monk Spring is a good time to be on the open road. Lazio is in the midst of a great transformation, the region's cobbled towns brimming with early artichokes, its boulder-strewn woodlands carpeted with anemone and pink cyclamen. Striking out towards the hilltop town of Sutri the following morning, I pass a gaunt, olive-wreathed farmhouse. The year's first swallows glide in and out, their long migration finally at an end. It's here I meet Brother Ambrose Okema, a Benedictine monk undertaking the Via Francigena by bike. For him, there's little difference between we pilgrims and the birds dancing above our heads, for we're all stirred to wander by the same invisible force. 'It's a call from within,' he says, beating a pulse on his chest. Dressed in Lycra and sat astride a gravel bike, he's a far cry from your stereotypical wandering monk: the solitary, staff-bearing pilgrim whose effigy graces every waymark along the Via Francigena. His companion Victor Hernandez, a stubbled Puerto Rican, shows me footage from morning Mass on his phone; a priest in Tyrian purple robes using a garden spray pump to douse the congregation with holy water. 'You've gotta love Italy,' Victor says, beaming. The last 60 or so miles to Rome are a five-day hike through cavernous valleys, emerald forests and rarely visited hilltop towns. Photograph by Gilda Bruno Tackled in full the Via Francigena is a mammoth 100-day trek, so many pilgrims choose to walk key stages. Photograph by Gilda Bruno We walk together for some time, descending into the Valle di Tinozza, where a jade stream guides us past rockfaces honeycombed with Etruscan tombs. Conversation flows easily on the road, and soon Ambrose is recounting his life story: the childhood in war-torn Uganda, his move to a monastery in America. I get the sense that this pair's pilgrimage is as much an act of friendship as it is of faith. 'I did the Camino de Santiago solo,' Victor tells me, 'so I knew I didn't want to do this trip alone. After meeting Ambrose at his monastery, it made sense to do it together.' That evening, with 14 miles under my belt, I drink a Campari in Sutri's main square, its baroque fountain trickling sapphire. Beside me, an elderly man with thick-framed spectacles is filling his pipe, eyes cast skyward as the rain clouds part. A passing friend berates him for staying out in such conditions. 'La pioggia lava tutto,' the smoker replies — rain cleans everything. His words are still with me two days later. They echo something Sigeric and his fellow medieval pilgrims must also have felt to be true — that in enduring the elements they were somehow cleansing themselves. Call it purification by suffering. From their howls of laughter, it's clear English pilgrims Maris Waterhouse and Sarah Thompson have no intention of suffering their way to Rome. 'We're not religious at all,' Maris tells me as we fall into step entering Insugherata Natural Reserve, a 1,800-acre patchwork of forest and farmland bordering Rome. 'Most of our lives are spent in the same routine — but this is something different.' With comically good timing, at that moment, a very large, very hairy wild boar emerges from the forest. I fleetingly wonder if he's here to enact revenge for last night's dinner, pappardelle pasta served with ragù di cinghiale, but he simply raises his snout, sniffs the air and trots off. Our friend's habitat slowly recedes, giving way to glimmering shopfronts and warm-lit cafes — every table adorned with some limp-limbed pilgrim unable to move another inch. Their reluctance is understandable, as the Via Francigena has one more challenge in store: Monte Mario, Rome's tallest hill. Praying for divine intervention, I crawl up its cobbled back; past silvery olives and flat-topped pines swaying in the afternoon breeze. I spot two peregrine falcons circling overhead, and then, quite without warning, catch sight of something I'd nearly forgotten: St Peter's Basilica, its gilded dome a second sun above the city's sweep of ancient spires. The final approach is like a dream, baroque avenues heavy with orange blossom giving way to the Renaissance splendour of St Peter's Square. Photograph by Gilda Bruno The final approach is like a dream, baroque avenues heavy with orange blossom giving way to the Renaissance splendour of St Peter's Square. At this point, Sigeric would likely have commenced the obligatory circuit of Rome's other holy places — a pilgrimage within a pilgrimage. But after a few moments of gazing at the basilica's gold-encrusted interior, Sarah's earlier words start ringing in my ears like a command: 'All I want from a trip like this is a long walk and a good meal at the end of it.' Within the hour I'm sat outside La Quercia, an osteria in Monteforte, stretching my legs beneath a table set with a bowl of smoky, parmesan-dusted pasta amatriciana. Dinner and a well-deserved rest. Some pleasures truly are eternal. UTracks' 10-day, self-guided Orvieto to Rome tour costs £950 per person, including B&B accommodation, meals and luggage transfers. This story was created with the support of UTracks. Published in the September 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK). To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
New Statesman
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
The best summer reads 2025
Illustration by Eiko Ojara Story of a Murder: The Wives, the Mistress and Doctor Crippen by Hallie Rubenhold The story of how in 1910, Dr Crippen murdered his wife, fled with his lover on an ocean liner, was caught using a transatlantic telegram, and was tried and hanged, is pure penny dreadful sensation. Hallie Rubenhold's deft study looks at the personnel involved in the drama and the backstories, by turns nondescript, seedy and startling, that led them to tragedy. Read our review here. Doubleday, 512pp, £25. Buy the book A New New Me by Helen Oyeyemi There are seven Kinga Sikoras, or seven versions of her – including a matchmaker, a perfumier and a window cleaner – and each keeps a diary informing the other Kingas of what she got up to. The latest novel from Helen Oyeyemi is a dizzyingly funny narrative, where slapstick surrounds a central mystery. But the story's crowning jewel is her ability to create seven unique voices belonging to one individual. Read our review here. Faber & Faber, 256pp, £16.99. Buy the book Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius, translated by Tom Holland Just a single copy of Suetonius's short but vivid biographies of the Caesars had been preserved in a Frankish monastery, yet it became the model for how to write about powerful rulers for succeeding generations. Tom Holland's exemplary translation of this collection shows how strikingly modern they are in their mix of personal details, politics and power. Read an excerpt from the book here. Penguin Classics, 448pp, £25. Buy the book Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo In her feminist reimagining of Moby-Dick, the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author Xiaolu Guo follows a similar plotline to Herman Melville's great novel, but with a slightly changed cast, including Ishmaelle, a 17-year-old girl who takes the identity of a 15-year-old boy. Guo deftly incorporates philosophical questions about our relationship with nature and gender dysphoria into the plot, with affecting results. Read our review here. Chatto & Windus, 448pp, £18.99. Buy the book Malick Sidibé's Painted Frames: the Malian photographer's portraits of African modernity, reframed as social and cultural objects. Photo by Malick Sidibé 2025 courtesy Loose Joints Peak Human by Johan Norberg The decline of all great civilisations is cyclical, notes Johan Norberg in Peak Human, yet inevitably another great dynasty seems always to emerge from the wake of previous eras. Norberg views history through seven 'golden ages', ranging from Ancient Greece to the Anglosphere by way of the Renaissance and Song China. However familiar the territory may be, he manages to place something surprising at every turn. Read our review here. Atlantic, 512pp, £22. Buy the book Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt The British-Irish writer Seán Hewitt has won awards and acclaim for his first two collections of poetry. Now, he publishes a mature and complete debut novel. It is a sore and delicate love story about two teenage boys in a fictional northern village. Hewitt's poetic facility makes easy music of his atmosphere. The central relationship is revealed with a light, sensitive touch, and reaches impressive emotional depths. Read our review here. Jonathan Cape, 240pp, £16.99. Buy the book The Brothers Grimm: A Biography by Ann Schmiesing Jacob and Wilhelm, the Brothers Grimm, were responsible for the most disturbing collection of fairy stories ever published. Their tales were not just entertainment, for children and for adults, but a means by which to preserve both the German language and its folk past. Compiled in the age of Romantic nationalism, the stories are united by their strangeness and brutality, according to Ann Schmiesing. Read our review here. Yale University Press, 360pp, £25. Buy the book Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Don't Forget We're Here Forever by Lamorna Ash How younger generations are confronting and embracing religion is the focus of Lamorna Ash's study of contemporary faith. Sparked by two of her friends who converted, she combines her personal religious journey with interviews with people who have redefined their understanding of Christianity or are turning to it for the first time, as well as visits to Quaker meetings and Jesuit retreats. Read our review here. Bloomsbury Circus, 352pp, £22. Buy the book Beartooth by Callan Wink The characters of Callum Wink's highly readable second novel are Thad and Hazen, two young Montana brothers who begin to discover new things about themselves, and each other, after an injury. The book is at once thoroughly wild and thoroughly intimate. The modest poetry of Callan's prose does justice both to the beauty of the wilderness and to the complexity of the brothers' relationship. Read our review here. Granta, 256pp, £14.99. Buy the book Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: China's Stolen Children by Barbara Demick Drawing on the story of two identical twins separated between China and the US as infants, Barbara Demick shows the dark side of China's international adoption programme. In it, many babies were taken from the arms of their parents by government officials and trafficked. Chinese bureaucracy remains opaque, with affected families still unable to find their children. Read our review here. Granta, 336pp, £20. Buy the book Zed Nelson's The Anthropocene Illusion: visualising the environmental cost of human development. Photo by Zed Nelson Friends in Youth: Choosing Sides in the English Civil War by Minoo Dinshaw This fine work of narrative history follows the careers of two friends who found themselves on opposite sides during the English Civil War – the parliamentarian Bulstrode Whitelocke and the royalist Edward Hyde (the future Earl of Clarendon). They met as students and both worked within their respective parties to temper extremism, later writing accounts of their turbulent times. Read our review here. Allen Lane, 544pp, £30. Buy the book A Quiet Evening: The Travels of Norman Lewis – selected and introduced by John Hatt Norman Lewis is best known for his wartime memoir Naples '44. However, much of his other writing, suffused with deadpan humour, where beauty and absurdity sit side by side, deserves wider recognition. This selection of 36 pieces takes in everything from an encounter with bandits in Guatemala to conversations with Cossack prisoners of war facing death. Read our review here. Eland, 504pp, £25. Buy the book Underdogs: The Truth About Britain's White Working Class by Joel Budd When did the working class become racialised? In classical Marxist scholarship, it didn't need to be – the working class was generally assumed to be white. But with mass immigration, a new category, the 'white working class', has been invented. Joel Budd's mixture of reportage, travelogue and enquiry is one of the most searching studies into this contested subcategory yet. Read our review here. PanMacmillan, 336pp, £20. Buy the book The Alienation Effect: How Central European Émigrés Transformed the British 20th Century by Owen Hatherley Owen Hatherley's new book is a history of the central-European émigrés who fled fascism in the 1930s, from Ernst Gombrich to Ernő Goldfinger. If you've ever picked up an orange Penguin paperback, taken a walk down the South Bank or moaned about the Trellick Tower, you've registered how they transformed Britain. Read our review here. Allen Lane, 608pp, £35. Buy the book The Boys by Leo Robson Staff at the New Statesman love to see a former colleague graduate from book critic to book author. It is even more pleasing to see the book in question receive wall-to-wall praise. With a large canvas (London at the time of the 2012 Olympics), and a small cast (centred on two brothers attempting reconciliation after life has separated them), Robson has pulled off a tricky career swerve. Read our review here. Riverrun, 304pp, £16.99. Buy the book Abundance: How We Build a Better Future by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson Affordable housing, infrastructure and climate crisis action: these are things we all want, so why do we never get them? Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein's book is a galvanising attack on the over-regulation of the US economy, which could be applied to Britain too. This is an argument that has too often been made by the right; the authors point the way towards a progressive developmentalism. Profile, 304pp, £16.99. Buy the book Malaparte: A Biography by Maurizio Serra, translated by Stephen Twilley 'Malaparte' is such a perfect name for a laureate of violence and fascism that it's a shame it was invented – by Kurt Suckert. It means 'bad side' in Italian and this biography reveals a writer whose travelogues, written while following the Eastern Front of the Second World War, are evidence of the 'bad side' of humanity he saw with grim clarity. Read our review here. New York Review of Books, 736pp, $39.95 Irascible: The Combative Life of Douglas Cooper, Collector and Friend of Picasso by Adrian Clark and Richard Calvocoressi The collector and Picassophile Douglas Cooper was not a nice man (acid tongued, bitchy, prickly) but he was an interesting one. He befriended – and fell out with – many of the greatest artists of the mid-20th century, was a wartime Monuments Man, and art historian and proselytiser with a sometimes dangerous gay lifestyle. Read the review here. Yale University Press, 592pp, £45. Buy the book [See also: Kemi Badenoch isn't working] Related
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A Construction Crew Found a 1,000-Year-Old Sword That's Remarkably Intact
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: A construction crew discovered a 1,000-year-old iron sword in the Netherlands still fully intact. The short sword comes complete with decorative copper inlays. The find could have been part of a ritual sacrifice or burial. A medieval sword defied the elements for 1,000 years, preserved in riverbed clay, until it was recently discovered by a construction crew along the Korte Linschoten River in the Netherlands. After its retrieval and preservation, the find will now go on display at Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, the National Museum of Antiquities, showing off intricate copper inlays that give the sword a mysterious provenance. The two-sided short sword dates to between 1050 and 1150 A.D. and its iron comes surprisingly well-kept, according to a translated statement from the museum. Before display, the sword underwent a 10-week preservation process that included desalination, rinsing, and drying. It now features a protective coating to prevent corrosion. 'If you had just left it after the find, it would quickly go on to corrode and crumble,' said Hannelore Valentiin from Londgoed Linschoten, according to a translated report from Netherlands-based Archeologie Online. 'That's why we had to take immediate action to preserve it.' X-rays taken during the preservation process revealed remnants of wood and leather on the handle, likely left over from the original grip. The three-foot-long, 1.85-pound iron sword features a six-inch cross guard and a Brazil nut-shaped pommel, common for the 11th century Frankish swords, according to Archaeology Magazine. 'It is strikingly light, indicating that it was probably a good sword, easy to handle,' Valentiin said. Still, experts believe the sword was likely ritual in nature. The decorations may help tell the story. Copper wire inlay form a sun wheel on one side, with the 'sonnenrad' a circle containing a cross. This was a common symbol throughout the Middle Ages. The other side offers a common Viking Age symbol of an endless knot featuring five interlaced squares within a circle. The visual once represented unbreakable loyalty and eternal bonds. Valentiin said that, during the time of the sword's burial, armies mainly fought with spears, which were cheaper and easier to make. Add in that since this sword was found without a scabbard, it may have been intentionally buried in the river and not lost during a battle. Offering a sword to a river was a common way to honor a dead fighter or sacrifice to the land. Medieval swords were highly personal possessions, often buried with the owners, according to the museum, so few are preserved as well as this one. Jointly owned by the municipality of Montfoort and the Londgoed Linschoten estate, it was donated to the museum and is on display through August. Initial research suggests the sword was likely made in Western Europe, possibly modern-day Germany, and the iron ore may have come from Veluwe in the Netherlands. 'This sword tells the story of a time when symbolism and spirituality were deeply intertwined, and when a simple design could transcend centuries,' a Montfoort City Council spokesperson previously told Historiek. 'It's refined craftsmanship and symbolic depth make it not only a historical relic, but also a work of art that reflects the cultural complexity of early medieval Europe.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
Castle acquires largest Anglo-Saxon gold coin hoard
A museum is to become the new home to what is believed to be the largest collection of 7th Century gold coins found in Britain. Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery in Norfolk has acquired the hoard which is made up of 129 coins and includes 118 different coin designs and 51 different European mints. The hoard was discovered by two metal detectorists in a west Norfolk farmer's field between 2014 and 2020. Charles Bingham-Newland, chair of the Friends of the Norwich Museums, said: "The hoard will add immeasurably to our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon period." The museum has been able to acquire the hoard with funding by the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund and The Wolfson Foundation. The collection is believed to most contain Frankish tremisses which were minted in the Merovingian Frankish kingdoms that occupied modern-day France, Germany, Switzerland and the Low Countries. They are said to be the first coins made and used in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire and predate the first gold coinage made in Anglo-Saxon England. The find is one of only eight hoards of this type of coin known from Europe and the third in the United Kingdom. Jail for PC who kept gold coin proceeds Largest hoard of gold Anglo-Saxon coins unearthed Anglo-Saxon coin hoard could be worth £400,000 When the coins were declared as treasure by a coroner's court in November 2021, Norwich Castle said it hoped to be able to acquire the hoard. At the time of their discovery, one finder notified the authorities whereas the other tried to sell a number of coins and was jailed for 16 months. Prior to their discovery, the largest hoard of coins from the same period was a purse of 101 coins discovered in Crondall, Hampshire, in 1828. Another purse found that contained 37 coins was discovered at the famous ship burial site in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, which was excavated in 1939. Giving the coins to the museum will make sure they remain intact and accessible to researchers and visitors. Dr Tim Pestell, senior curator of archaeology at the castle, said: "This internationally significant find reflects the wealth and continental connections enjoyed by the early Kingdom of East Anglia. "Study of the hoard and its find spot has the potential to unlock our understanding of early trade and exchange systems and the importance of west Norfolk to East Anglia's ruling kings in the 7th Century." The hoard going on display marks the reopening of Norwich Castle's Anglo-Saxon and Viking Gallery which has been closed for several years while work to transform the castle's Norman Keep has been under way. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. Museum work delay 'causing financial pressure' Detectorist finds hoard of Roman silver coins Country's treasure hotspots revealed by new data Norwich Castle
BBC News
20-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Norwich Castle acquires largest Anglo-Saxon gold coin hoard
A museum is to become the new home to what is believed to be the largest collection of 7th Century gold coins found in Britain. Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery in Norfolk has acquired the hoard which is made up of 129 coins and includes 118 different coin designs and 51 different European mints. The hoard was discovered by two metal detectorists in a west Norfolk farmer's field between 2014 and 2020. Charles Bingham-Newland, chair of the Friends of the Norwich Museums, said: "The hoard will add immeasurably to our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon period." The museum has been able to acquire the hoard with funding by the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund and The Wolfson Foundation. The collection is believed to most contain Frankish tremisses which were minted in the Merovingian Frankish kingdoms that occupied modern-day France, Germany, Switzerland and the Low are said to be the first coins made and used in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire and predate the first gold coinage made in Anglo-Saxon England. The find is one of only eight hoards of this type of coin known from Europe and the third in the United Kingdom. When the coins were declared as treasure by a coroner's court in November 2021, Norwich Castle said it hoped to be able to acquire the hoard. At the time of their discovery, one finder notified the authorities whereas the other tried to sell a number of coins and was jailed for 16 months. Prior to their discovery, the largest hoard of coins from the same period was a purse of 101 coins discovered in Crondall, Hampshire, in 1828. Another purse found that contained 37 coins was discovered at the famous ship burial site in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, which was excavated in 1939. Giving the coins to the museum will make sure they remain intact and accessible to researchers and visitors. Dr Tim Pestell, senior curator of archaeology at the castle, said: "This internationally significant find reflects the wealth and continental connections enjoyed by the early Kingdom of East Anglia."Study of the hoard and its find spot has the potential to unlock our understanding of early trade and exchange systems and the importance of west Norfolk to East Anglia's ruling kings in the 7th Century." The hoard going on display marks the reopening of Norwich Castle's Anglo-Saxon and Viking Gallery which has been closed for several years while work to transform the castle's Norman Keep has been under way. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
