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Academic travel articles, written by our expert tour leaders.
The Academy Journal
Written by our specialist tour leaders, these articles explore hidden gems, historical events and artistic masterpieces, enriching your upcoming travels with their unique perspectives.
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The Via Francigena: The Story of a Medieval Superhighway
As the famous saying goes, ‘All roads lead to Rome’. One of the oldest and most remarkable of these is the Via Francigena, a route that stitched together the great landscapes of Europe long before the age of rail or motorways. Stretching some 2,000 kilometres from Canterbury to Rome, the Via Francigena crosses five countries, 16 regions and more than six hundred towns and villages.
Sezincote House
The Cotswolds have been much in the news lately. Not only do the King (at Highgrove), the Beckhams, the Camerons, Kate Moss, Hugh Grant, various minor royalty and most recently Beyoncé, and of course Jeremy Clarkson at Diddly Squat have homes there, but now it’s wealthy Americans who have made the Cotswolds their summer holiday destination of choice.
Delphi: Navel of the World
Legend has it that Zeus was determined to discover where the centre of the world lay. And so he sent out two eagles from each end of the cosmos. They met at Delphi which Zeus then declared was the omphalos (navel) of the world and which, over centuries, transformed itself into the leading oracular sanctuary of the Classical world.
Abruzzo
In an era of mass tourism with Italy amongst the world’s most popular destinations, it can come as a surprise to find that there are still entire regions in the country which are virtually unknown to the international traveller. But such is the case with the region of Abruzzo, nestling in the centre of the peninsular to the east of Rome. I first came to Italy in 1980 with the usual expectations of a place
La Raya: Where Spain and Portugal meet
Iberian history could be viewed as a chronicle of two nations separated by a shared geography. These regions with their charming small towns that lie along the Hispano/Portugal border, the so called La Raya in Spanish (or A Raia in Portuguese), are some of the most spectacular and interesting to visit in both countries.
Palermo’s Splendid Cappella Palatina
Few cities in Europe are as cosmopolitan as the wonderful, vibrant city of Palermo, largely because, throughout its long history, it has been ruled by a number of different people. It was founded by the early lords of the Mediterranean, the Phoenicians, in the 8th century BCE, and was conquered by first Rome and later by Muslim Aghlabids, coming from Tunisia, only to be ruled by Spain
Behind the Throne
Henry VIII is one of the most famous monarchs - in his 38-year reign he married six times, broke with the Catholic Church, and ruled during one of the most politically tumultuous periods in England’s history. When the 18-year-old Henry VIII ascended the throne of England in 1509, he was determined to epitomise the age as a Golden Renaissance Prince. His reign marked the shift from the medieval period to
Georgia’s Election: A referendum on a country’s place in the world
Last weekend, the small, former Soviet Republic of Georgia—a country of 3.7m people whose territory lies within the tectonic folds between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus Mountains—held parliamentary elections. The result was victory for the ruling “Georgian Dream” party founded by the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili in 2012,
Top Ten American Revolution Sites
With the 250th birthday of the United States on the horizon in 2026, there’s never been a better time to visit the key sites of America’s War for Independence. It all began in Boston in the early 1760s when colonists there began agitating for better treatment by the British government, soon kickstarting a mass movement across 13 colonies up and down the East Coast to press for complete independence
Scotland: From Edinburgh to the Isles
“Scotland is a land of mountains, glens, and islands, a land of myth and legend”. So wrote Sir Walter Scott and indeed, with its untamed natural beauty, from the deep lochs of the highlands to the vast green meadows of the lowlands, and the rugged Hebridean Isles, Scotland has an almost ethereal quality. Just as the unique terrain captures the imagination, so too do the cairns and ancient stone henges