Wow (rhymes very well with Ciao!) I have neglected my blog duties a bit - I would apologise but I have been busy walking, sweating, learning Italian ways, sweating, fighting off mosquitoes, sweating and being a bit of a tourist! As you may be able to tell, coming down from the mountains and onto the plains of northern Italy I walked into full blown summer. It's 32°C in the afternoon and my wonderfully english body is fairly useless in this situation. Hence the...

I arrived in Italy today, on foot, as usual. That is all. Grazie! And i know i haven't written anything since but it's coming I promise . . . .

I arrived in Grenoble with the vague hope that my waterlogged phone could be fixed, but fairly resigned to the financial pain of having to buy a new one. Thus followed over 2 weeks of daily (sometimes x2 or x3) trips to a backstreet call centre / come internet cafe to find a new problem had arisen - 'demain - je suis certain'. (Thank god he wasn't Spanish because that many 'mañanas' would have meant a century!) But the huge plus side was spending more than my ...

After a thoroughly relaxing week in Lyon with great company, I was again sad to leave a city. Cedric and Phanie had hosted me for over a week in their lovely appartement in the Croix Rousse district. It sits high up, just above the old town, with views across the whole city and off to the mountains in the distance. I had enjoyed indulgent lie-ins, lazy wanderings through the old streets, dicovering the traboules (the secret corridors and passageways that link st...

So after 1150km, 3 months, 1 walking partner and countless blisters I have made it to Lyon, probably the first big milestone on my journey geographically. I got a bee in my bonnet to get here after I left Paris and pushed on with the kms. The stomping has taken it's toll in the last few days though and I have arrived with new pain in my back and knees. Hopefully nothing a rest won't iron out. My last couple of weeks on the river Loire covered quite a distance a...