Italy became a nation in 1861 through the convergence of forces and the efforts of several individuals. The romantic hero among Italy’s founders, Giuseppe Garibaldi (for whom the venerable Bay View bar is named) is the subject of The Hero’s Way. British expat Tim Parks, living in Italy since 1981, donned hiking boots and followed the pathway of the poncho-wearing revolutionary’s 1849 trek over hundreds of miles of rough terrain. Garibaldi’s retreat from Rome was a setback that cost the lives of most of his men but prepared the way for Italy’s birth.
Parks’ hike brought him alongside highways of speeding cars. “We’re walking on detritus: broken glass, road kill, syringes and plastic; plastic in every shape and form,” he writes. Many Italians he talked to thought he was bonkers for trying to trace Garibaldi’s steps. And many of the beautiful sites visited have been degraded by “conveyor-belt tourism.” He seems a bit disappointed by contemporary reality. “Public space has become a purgatory where you wait to be released into the freedom of your private life,” he adds. One imagines Parks may have been happier in a more valiant, romantic age.
