The Secrets of the Tiber

Rome and the Tiber share a 3000-year history, spanning the period from the Roman Empire to the golden age of the Popes to the present day. For a long time, the city and its river existed in a close symbiosis. The Tiber kept daily life moving – it was used to transport everything from grain to marble obelisks. Its water drove mill wheels, and its good fishing grounds made the Church rich. It was also a force of nature: the Romans feared its frequent floods. But they enjoyed bathing in the river, and it formed the beautiful backdrop to the pleasure gardens of the Renaissance. Rich princes and paupers flocked to its banks in search of spiritual salvation. Knights were dubbed on the banks of the Tiber, orphan girls were married, executions were carried out, plague victims were cured and prostitutes were corralled. In Birgit Schönau’s gripping double biography of Rome and the Tiber, everything converges: good times and terrible times, religion and crime, art and cesspits, history and mystery.