The Times published and article on June 16, 2003.
A mysterious "sword in the stone" said to have been thrust into a rock near Siena by a medieval knight, proves that the legend of King Arthur, Excalibur and the Holy Grail originated in Tuscany, not Cornwall or Brittany, an Italian scholar claims.– Richard Owen, BST, The Times
The sword, of which only the hilt and an inch or two of blade is visible, is preserved at the Gothic abbey of San Galgano at Montesipei, about 19 miles (30 km) southwest of Siena. The Cistercian abbey, now ruined, was built to honour St Galgano, a 12th-century Tuscan nobleman named Galgano Guidotti who renounced a life of "arrogance, lust and violence" to become a hermit after seeing a vision of the Archangel Michael.