November 2nd. 1975. Ostia.

Around 6:30 AM, the sun is coming up in the open fields of an ancient fishing village.

Just a few miles outside of Rome, it feels a world away from the Eternal City, The Capital of The World.

The rising sun reveals pebbled beaches, salt marshes, faded signs, piles of concrete.

The waters of the Tyrenniean Sea gently meet the sand at the nearby Lidos, but we begin further out, somewhere in the open fields of Via dell'Idroscalo. A cold wind blows across the desolate landscape.

If you look closely, you can find the traces of an old runway for seaplanes, a satellite military installation from the first world war, but in the 50 years since, it has been reclaimed by sand, pine trees and piles of dead reeds. The air smells of seawater and diesel fuel.

Seasons change, and many days here feel like the last, but this morning will be etched in the collective memory.

A body has just been discovered.

This is False Walls….

Collect your belongings and pass the control gates.

Separate from the teeming crowd of tourists on holiday and locals folding back into reality.

Take the road from the airport but veer off immediately.

This is not the road that leads to Rome.

Location: Stockholm Sweden

This year, I found myself in various locations in the Nordic countries, a region that contains stunning natural phenomena as well as a deep folklore populated by an endless cast of mystical beings. Trolls inhabit lakes and dark caves, elves are found in deep forests and waterfalls, giants inhabit mountain ranges and rocky islands. And yet even in the modern cities, folklore and legend can be found, ghosts and traces of history, real and imagined, overlap in certain places, hiding in plain sight but available for those of us who know where, and how to look for them.

In this episode, we will take a trip to one of these places, a real place that has stories to tell, some from within our earthly realm, some within the world of fantasy and some that float between these two words, waiting for the right person to uncover them. And we, of course, are following the arrow directly to that very destination.

Steel yourself, the train is leaving the station...