Travels with a Medieval Queen is an attempt at a biography-cum-travel-book, with Taylor Simeti and a friend recreating the trip which Constance of Sicily made in 1194 from southern Germany down to the tip of Italy. Married to the unlikeable Emperor Henry VI and at that point 40-years-old, Constance discovered en route that she was pregnant for the first time; in central Italy, she would give birth to the future Emperor Frederick II. I started out enjoying it as a book which, while not scholarly or deep (and based on information which at points was slightly dated) could at least be an amiable introduction to the period, the woman and the region. Yet the more I read, the more I was irritated by the author saying that they reached such-and-such town, but that she hadn't researched it yet so sadly she couldn't tell us anything about X thing which they'd driven past in ignorance. I get that this trip was carried out in '96 and written up in '02 so looking things up via wifi wasn't exactly possible, but surely you'd try to put in quite a bit of time in the library before driving the length of Italy?

And then she included the horoscope she'd had done for Constance. And included quite a bit of discussion as to how the fact that Constance was a Pisces would affect her actions. At which point I gave the book the side-eye so hard that I think I sprained something. ( )

Informative and nice to read. But slightly too much about Mary and too little about Constance ( )

This book is about 2 house wifes that sort of travel along the route of a queens journey. Not enough facts to base this exact route of her journey and lots of personal opinions. ( )