We will be walking continuously for about three hours each day.  Some days will be a little less

and some days a little more, particularly in Rome and the Cinque Terre.

Many of Italy’s and France's finest treasures – it’s hillside towns, sanctuaries, castles, ancient ruins –

need to be encountered by foot if you are to experience the great effect these sites have in relation

to the landscape in which they exist. Of course, in most of the cities and towns, the pavements and

walking tracks are the same as they have been for centuries and it is important to realize that you will

be spending most of your time walking on very uneven surfaces, mostly potholed or "pock-marked"

and certainly with very little definition between walking path and road. The walks in the hillside towns

are often very steep and most of these towns have now barred tourist vehicle traffic, so we need to be

able to walk some short distances up some steep inclines.

In every case,walks are planned so that there will be no need to hurry and everyone will be able

to tackle the more difficult slopes at their own pace, having time to stop for photographs and window

shopping to ease the climb and get those "jelly" legs moving. We have lots of coffee and snack stops on

the longer walking days so you will have plenty of time to rest.

The first few days in Rome and Paris will probably seem the hardest – jet lag, emotion and just plan sensory overload,

will hit you after the first two days and you may feel like you will not cope for the rest of the tour.  Rome and Paris

are physically taxing as there is so much to see and walking is the only way to see it.  The reason

we have such a very slow first day is to ease into the pace so that by the time we get to Friday you will

appreciate another very easy going day with the opportunity to do very little in the afternoon.

To prepare yourself for these first few days and also to ensure you can enjoy every moment of the Tour,

I would strongly suggest that you start walking for at least one hour every day, preferably in the shoes you

will be wearing in the major cities.  I also suggest that you try to vary your walk to include lots of hard surfaces, asphalt,

concrete, many steps up and down and plenty of stopping and standing around for a few minutes. This regime

will prepare your legs for the type of walking we will be doing in Rome and Paris