Through the wardrobe to Narnia

I joined a virtual tour this afternoon of an ancient commune in the centre of Italy called Narni (Narnia in Latin).  It inspired the writer, C S Lewis to use the name, Narnia, for his Chronicles.  He found the name on an old map when he was at school during World War I.

In 1979, a group of young cave explorers discovered a 12th century underground church which had lain hidden and forgotten for centuries.  The church was a Dominican church called St Michael's.  On further exploration, they found a cell containing masonic symbols.  It turned out to be a room where heretics were tortured by the Inquisition, and one of those was a captain in the army  who was also a freemason.  The underground church is now a tourist attraction run by volunteers who maintain the site.

There are two other tenuous connections to C S  Lewis and that is San Lucia who may have inspired Lucy, one of the children in the Narnia Chronicles, and a stone lion, which may have inspired Aslan.

Here's a link to a Wikipedia article on Narni.

I joined a virtual walk and talk in Blackfriars, in the City of London this evening, about Shakespeare, called Shakespeare: Myths and Mysteries, led by Gerard, an actor.  Shakespeare came to London from Stratford-upon-Avon on foot as a young man to seek his fortune.  At this point, he was already married to Anne Hathaway and had children, having married at 18.  In Shakespeare's time, too, they had lockdowns but that was for a true pandemic, the bubonic plague, and the theatres and other places of 'entertainment' such as bear-baiting, were closed down in an effort to stop the spread of plague in the still medieval London.

https://www.heygo.com/postcards/album/99504

Gerard, our tour guide

The Millenium Bridge

The Blackfriars pub

The original Globe Theatre

The City from the Millenium Bridge, showing the Shard.

St Paul's Cathedral