Tim Parks, prolific author of many books about Italy through the eyes of British expat, invites the reader to follow him in on a trek through Italy right before COVID locked us all in our homes. Tim Parks and his Garibaldini, Eleanora, spent a month on foot recreating Garibaldi Army 1849's retreat from Rome to Ravenna. Tim Parks expertly weaves the narrative through the trivia, fun, secrets and mysteries, and attraction sites. Tim Parks builds the story switching back and forth between present and the past, skillfully marking crossovers. The portrait of contemporary Italy with all the diversity and contradictions it entails is drawn by someone who is not a dispassionate observer. It is also incredible in how many different ways Tim Parks can describe the sun, the heat, the sound of crickets and cicadas that accompanies them on this trip. Readers of this travelogue will learn about history, politics and Italian ways with many tips on how to have a wonderful time walking through the gorgeous landscapes of Italy.

While different from the psychological thrillers that have filled most of my COVID-19 reading life, The Hero's Way reminded me of the great big world outside my window and rekindle that spark of wanderlust that I've carried since my first visit to Europe as a high school student 15 years ago.

Full-disclosure, when I started this book, I only had the barest idea of who, exactly, Giuseppe Garibaldi was. Furthermore, I've never been to Italy (not yet, at least!). But after reading this book, I feel almost as if I've met Garibaldi and walked the streets of central Italy. Parks does a successful job at something that can be quite difficult - bringing the past to life and tying it to the present. While I sometimes wished the book were more history than travelogue (or vice versa), overall, I was pleased with the experience of reading it. For lovers of travel, history, and just interesting non-fiction tales, this is a book for you. Also, if you are looking for a read to take you far from the sometimes claustrophobic world of COVID-19, be sure to grab a copy of The Hero's Way.

I read this book with a lot of anticipation. I love Italy, I love hiking, trails and history. The premise of the book seemed very promising: the author and his wife tracing the footsteps of Garibadli and his men.

It’s a fascinating subject if you’re into that particular topic. Turned out that my interest in Italy or hiking or history wasn’t enough to keep me interested in this book.

I do wish there were more visuals though I got the cheekiness of the author suggesting we open up Google maps.

I think if you don’t have an interest in Garibaldi and the Italian unification to begin with, this book will do little to lift your enthusiasm on the subject. However, if said topics are out your alley, then this book will be also!

I hate to provide a poor review when this one is one of the first posted for this book, but I did not enjoy this book, despite it being one of my favorite genres, travel/history writing. The best part of this book is that the author does a good job researching and proving details about Garibaldi's Italian campaigns, I feel like I only came with tidbits about Garibaldi and not a greater understanding of his motivations. Despite this lack of overall history, I feel like I know very little about the couple walking the trail of Garbaldi and the people they come across. Stories that aren't funny or enlightening are given the same weight as the much more plentiful mundane. The author also states at the beginning that since maps and pictures are expensive, to look up your own maps for each chapter, and while I understand the drive towards thrift, a travel/adventure book without pictures and maps is hard to support.

In “The Hero’s Way,” author Tim Parks recounts the journey he and his wife literally walked in the footsteps of Garibaldi as they traced the route that he and about 4,000 of his men took from Rome after the fall of the short-lived Roman Republic.

Fans of Italian history and military history will definitely find much to enjoy here, as Parks is incredibly thorough in his coverage of this particular episode of Garibaldi’s life. No matter where the author and his wife were, if there was something of any note or importance whatsoever related to the historical basis of their trek, Garibaldi, or any of the Italian patriot’s ragtag band of followers, then Parks was sure to cover it in exhaustive detail.

I’ll confess that as someone who already didn’t have very much of an interest in Italian unification, I didn’t have my curiosity stirred up any further. But even though I ended up not being a part of the target audience, I still liked going along for the trip that Parks took me on. Not only did I receive what I have to admit was an excellently comprehensive lesson on this very specific episode from Italian history, but I also enjoyed being able to go on a long hike through present-day Italy, and enjoying many of its culinary delights, several towns, and its people, all without having to leave my home.