Vikings. The Italian Saga

Bjorn Ironside’s journey and the raid into the ancient Tuscany cities

by Enio Pecchioni

In 860, a fleet of Viking ships entered the Mediterranean. After plundering coastal cities in Spain and France, commanders Hastein and Björn Jaernsida (“Ironside”) decided to head for central Italy.
Having reached and raided the port of Pisa, the Vikings sailed up the River Arno and arrived in the territories of Florence and Fiesole. They conquered the “city on the lunate hill” and the castle of Bishop Donatus.
Florence was also besieged.
The scarcity of medieval sources prevents us from fully understanding these events, but the author attempts to bridge the gaps through research and imagination to make the historical circumstances more comprehensible.
We are talking about a fact that is as little known as it is surprising and significant: the daring expedition carried out by those northern sailors, rough men, scornful of danger, who later knew how to participate as protagonists in the cultural development of Europe.