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The Hero's Way
- Walking with Garibaldi from Rome to Ravenna
- Narrated by: Roger May
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
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The Hero's Way
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Best-selling author of Italian Ways Tim Parks follows the hair-raising journey of Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, 250 miles on foot from Rome to Ravenna, to look at Italy past and present.
In the summer of 1849, Garibaldi, legendary hero of guerrilla wars in South America and future architect of a united Italy, was finally forced to concede defeat in his defence of a revolutionary Roman republic. After holding the besieged city for four long months, it was clear that only surrender could prevent slaughter and destruction at the hands of a huge French army. But Garibaldi was determined to turn defeat into moral victory. On the evening of 2 July, riding alongside his heavily pregnant wife, Anita, he led 4,000 men out of the city to continue the struggle for national independence elsewhere. Hounded by both French and Austrian armies, they crossed the mountainous Appenines, and after endless skirmishes and adventures arrived in Ravenna on 2 August with just 250 survivors.
The group commandeered fishing boats on the Adriatic coast in an attempt to reach the revolutionary republic of Venice, but were intercepted by the Austrian navy. Anita was seriously ill. Garibaldi's companions split up. Most were rounded up and executed, but the hero himself escaped, travelling back across Italy in disguise until he could finally embark from Genova, first for Africa, then the USA. Ten years later, his revolutionary campaign in Sicily would be the catalyst that brought about the unification of Italy.
With his partner Eleonora, Tim Parks follows their arduous journey in the summer of 2019, in a fascinating portrait of Italy past and present.
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ann Carolan
- 14-05-23
Fantastic
Really enjoyed this book 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 I’ll am a Tom parks fan and this did not disappoint
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- John a.
- 08-07-21
Interesting book and generally well read
Well worth listening to for anyone interested in Garibaldi. Generally well read, with the exception of Italian words and place names, unfortunately
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- BBette
- 18-07-21
Excellent history/travelogue
A really fascinating account of Garibaldi's retreat from Rome in 1849 after the failed republic collapsed, interwoven with Tim Parks' walk along the route with his partner. My only quibble was with the narrator whose Italian pronunciation was a little erratic - particularly with the Italian sounds 'gli' (eg degli), 'sch' (eg bruschetta) and 'zz' (eg Mazzini), which became quite distracting.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr Christopher Caswell
- 23-04-22
Surprisingly enchanting
I learnt so much about Garibaldi in the this charming travel tale. By chance it passed several places where I have homes!
Highly recommended.
Occasional mispronounced Italian place names could have been edited out, but a small irritation.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Christopher Whalen
- 03-05-23
Walking through Italy in 1849 and 2019
This is a travel and history book by one of my favourite non-fiction authors, Tim Parks. It doesn’t reach the heights of “Italian Neighbours”, “An Italian Education” or “Italian Ways” but I learned a lot about Garibaldi and the Risorgimento (Italy’s 19th-century fight for unification). Parks and his much younger partner, Eleonora (gone is his wife, Rita, from the earlier books), follow the trail of Garibaldi and his men in their retreat from Rome to Ravenna, winding their way on foot through the hills, mountains, valleys and plains. Parks does a good job of weaving his 2019 travel narrative with the 1849 accounts of the rebels’ improbable escape from Austrian and French armies. The journey takes 30 days and the walking is hard (around 20 miles a day) and relentless, with steep climbs ending most days in the sweltering heat of August. The route goes through Umbria, Tuscany, across the Appenines and ends on the Adriatic coast. Italian unification didn’t come until 1861, but Garibaldi’s popularity is starting to grow. He sounds charismatic, but the small-scale and amateurishness of the battles and marches reminds me of Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia”. He is nevertheless a beloved and shrewd leader of men, able to outwit the armies in his pursuit. As ever, Parks is at his best when describing the local Italians he encounters on his way. It works well as an audiobook and the narrator, Roger May, conveys Parks’s tone of voice really well. There are photos and place names on Parks’s website. I now want to trace out the route he took on Google Maps.
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