Hiking tours in Italy

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Italy Guidebooks

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Italian group walking tours, hiking trips, and trekking vacations

It may be slow going, but there's no way to see the Olde Worlde like a walking or hiking tour through Italy. For millenia, this is how anyone not rich enough to afford a horse got around, and Italy is still very much built to a human scale, criss-crossed with ancient pathways, scattered with tiny villages and hamlets with welcoming inns each within a day's walk of the last.

Walking tours & resources

iExplore Italy walking tours 2010
Chianti: Walking & Wine (8 days)
Tuscan Delights (8 days)
The Amalfi Coast (8 days)
Walking in Tuscany (8 days)
Walking In The Western Dolomites (8 days)
Walking In Sardinia (8 days)
Walking the Italian Lakes (9 days)

Hiking/Trekking trips
Hiking in Piemonte (8 days)
Classic Dolomites (8 days)
Hiking in Ticino (8 days)
Hiking Monte Rosa (8 days)
Tour Du Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) (8 days)
Mont Blanc Highlights (8 days)
Introduction to Via Ferrata (8 days)
Via Ferrata Tour (8 days)
Via Ferrata In The Northern Dolomites (8 days)
The Matterhorn Circuit (9 days)
Trekking Mt. Blanc (12 days)
Mont Blanc Hotel Trek (15 days)
Mont Blanc Circuit (15 days)
Cilento & Amalfi Trek (15 days)
iExplore (www.iExplore.com) - The number one–ranked website for adventure and experiential travel—and it provides the adventure tour booking engine for everyone from Expedia to the Travel Channel to Frommer's and Lonely Planet's websites. (Given its excellent catalog, it's also a ReidsItaly.com partner.)

It's been around for more than a decade now and was recently acquired by TUI, which owns more than 30 major travel brands. That means iExplore incorporates all the tours from sister company Adventure Center, a major player able to maintain low prices on hundreds of adventures on all seven continents by contracting with expert local outfitters and other specialist operators.

Around 40 Italy trips each year, with a nice spread of styles. There are both more moderate, easy-going walking tours as well as more strenous hiking and trekking adventures. The box on the right highlights walking and hiking trips from the 2010 catalog. They also do biking, snowsport, and more general tours.

InfoHub.com (www.infohub.com) - Hundreds of hiking, trekking, and walking tours throughout the world offered by dozens of tour operators and guides.

G.A.P. Adventures (www.gapadventures.com) - A variety of Italian adventure trips, including several hikes and multi-sport active vacations such as the Cinque Terre Coastal Walk, Trekking Mont Blanc, the Sicilian Volcano Trail, and an Amalfi Coast trip that includes several walks.

Country Walkers (www.countrywalkers.com) - High-end (and hence pricey), but impeccably credentialed, with around 20 guided and self-guided walks in Italy and another dozen private and custom tours available.

Wilderness Travel (www.wildernesstravel.com) - Specializes in walking tours, treks, and inn-to-inn hiking tours of Europe, as well as less strenuous walking tours. About a dozen Italy options.

The Wayfarers (www.thewayfarers.com) - Top walking tour outfit for nearly three decades, offering eight classic Italian itineraries.

Butterfield & Robinson (www.butterfield.com) - Long-established, upscale walking tour outfit with a half-dozen Italy walks (and about 10 bike rides, a few designed for families). Top notch. Not cheap.

Sherpa Expeditions (www.sherpa-walking-holidays.co.uk) - British company offering mostly self-guided (about a dozen Italian walking and trekking itineraries) and group treks (a handful in Italy).

Club Alpino Italiano (www.cai.it) - The premier Italian association geared toward aiding hikers and walkers. Membership also usually gets you discounts at Italy's network of mountain huts.

When you want just a day of hiking, not a whole tour

Even if you don't want to walk from town to town through the countryside, you may be happy to spend a day walking around town with an experienced guide. There’s no better way to bring a city’s culture and history to life than through a professional guide’s anecdotes, character sketches, jokes, and tons of background details. And the easiest (and cheapest) way to get one is to sign up for a guided walking tour (or group bike or Segway tour).

Guided specialty walking tours can run the gamut from a spin through the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel to a private tour of the art & architecture of Venice to a stroll through Bologna's gourmet side of pasta, mortadella, and chocolate.

For some walks, you must reserve in advance; for others, you just show up at a specified place and time and pay the guide the fee (might be anywhere from $10 to $60). You can pick up brochures on guided walking tours at local tourism offices in Italy

ReidsItaly.com has partnered with Viator, which provides a variety of walking tours you can sign up for ahead of time (there are direct links to a few in the last paragraph), as well as advance booking for skip-the-line tickets to major sights in Rome, Florence, and Venice. Here are some of their guided walks in major Italian destinations: