Homage to Gallarus Oratory
Fifty years ago, one of the most daring expeditions in modern times left Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula. Tim Severin set out with a crew of three in a curragh – a skin-boat shaped
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Crossing to Inis Cealtra
Firsts. I first went to Inis Cealtra – Holy Island in County Clare – with my first girlfriend, Leigh, in 1973. From County Antrim, a northerner, she had an esprit de vie
A Mediterranean Valley redux
My son looked at me askance and muttered ‘more nostalgia’. I smiled, recognising he was right. My Mediterranean journey really began in this unlikely valley and its off-the-beaten-track places that I have
Tracy Roberts and LoveItaly
Based in Rome, LoveItaly is now in its seventh year and its accent is decidedly American and not patrician. It owes everything to the dynamism of a Californian who is every bit as Roman as the Romans.
Paul Reynolds and a new Classical Archaeology
The astonishing thing about Paul is his photographic memory. I recall he once joined a Roman sherd from Butrint with a piece from the maritime villa at Diaporit, three miles away.
The Lost City of Norchia
Upper Palaeolithic flints, Eneolithic tombs, and remains of a Bronze Age semicircular hut, as well as a tomb with a Villanovan shield, show that the place evolved over time, before being bafflingly abandoned in the earlier Iron Age.
Queen Adelaide’s castle in the Tuscan marches
Thanks to modern scientific analyses, the every-day circumstances of Tuscany’s Dark Age peoples are no longer mute. One thing is certain from this excavation: objects and nature played an active part in transforming the primitive experiences of Tuscany’s 9th-century peasants and their early feudal masters into some of the most sophisticated lifestyles in Europe by the 12th century.
Sailing to Ithaca?
Is Ithaca, in fact, Odysseus’ island, where Penelope faithfully weaved, steadfastly waiting for her mischievous prince in their well-appointed palace?
Penn Museum: a museum for the coming decades
The symbol of the new Penn Museum is in the refurbished main entrance hall. On a prominent podium behind the ticket desks sits the Museum’s celebrated sphinx. Richard Hodges reports.
Albania: the visit of the World Bank President
Let me go back over a quarter-century to Albania on a blissful autumn day in 1995 when, like a Martian, the President of the World Bank descended upon us.
Chania: a new year’s day hike
Ancient Kydonia, as Chania was known to Homer, owes its origins – like Knossos – to Neolithic times.
Lascaux IV
As far as I could tell, every minor contour of the original has been replicated, as of course have the paintings themselves.
Appointing Pompeii’s Director
Beyond the island I saw the thin campanile of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, which houses the Mouth of Truth, a bucket- list ‘must’ thanks to the incomparable Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (1953).
Albania and the Death of Pan
Devil or pastoral sprite and mischief-maker, Pan’s presence in the form of the lost sanctuary on Mount Mile lends a new dimension to the god’s story
Denmark’s Viking fortresses: a Tuscan challenge
Richard Hodges explores the Viking fortresses at Trelleborg and Borgring.
Travels to Malta
At the far end of Valletta, within the massive angular bulwarks of the fortress of St Elmo poking out at the entrance of the Grand Harbour, is a museum devoted to the town’s history and its struggle for survival.
A postcard from Athens
Athens conjures up ancient Greece and the civilisation symbolized by the fastidious re-building of the Parthenon. Yet Athens boasts possibly the most extensive remains of any Roman city in Greece. Why should