Falco’s Britannia with Lindsey Davis

We proceed to the ancient city of Verulamium, where we visit the only theatre visible above ground in Britain. Our final visit of the day takes us to Verulamium Museum, which contains beautiful colourful mosaics, a hoard of gold coins and many everyday objects excavated from the Roman town.

Time and access permitting we may have the opportunity to visit Welwyn Roman Baths on this day.

We travel to Butser Ancient Farm, to explore a reconstructed Romano-British housing, before proceeding to Chichester, where we see vestiges of what had been the heartland of King Togidubnus. We end the day at Fishbourne, the backdrop of a Falco novel, and believed by many to be Togidubnus’ palace, the opulence of which is evidence by its extraordinary mosaics.

We cross the water to the Isle of Wight where we visit Brading Villa, which has an extraordinary array of figurative mosaics, including the intriguing depiction of a man with a cockerel head. We continue to Newport Villa, with a well-preserved bath complex and frescoed walls.

Today we visit Dorchester Museum which has been new refurbished , we will also take a short walk to Maumbury Ring which was a Neolithic henge monument which was converted into an earthen amphitheatre by the Romans in the 1^st century AD. To conclude we will visit Colliton Park where we see one of the best preserved Roman town houses with mosaics still visible in Roman Britain.

This visit is closely linked to the first Falco novel, namely the mines at Charterhouse, whose extraction of silver and lead was important for the payment of Roman soldiers. Our final visit is The bathing complex in Bath, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is intriguing for conflating a bathing complex with a sacred spring to the goddess Sulis. 

We will finish our tour mid afternoon after our visit to the Roman Baths. Our coach will travel to London from Bath for anyone who wishes to return to London Victoria coach park.