Thursday, April 10, 2008

On The Road - Italy

For a while now Thomas and I have been planning a trip to Italy that will see us setting off on an adventure from his home town in Tours and embarking on an exciting road trip that will take us across the Northern half of Italy. Along the way our plan is simply to train, share methods and ideas with the local traceurs, explore and have fun.

Chosen for it's natural beauty, various delights and attractions, Italy will be the perfect place to explore in style from the airy open-top of Thomas' version of the legendary Citroën 2CV, as seen in the photo below...



We are also both delighted to be joined on this trip by our good friend Andy 'Kiell' Day, who will be there every step (and leap) of the way to capture the many special moments with his considerable photography skill - as well as teaching us a thing or two around the Dolomites with all his recent climbing experience I'm sure!

Our plan is loosely in place now and with the aid of many generous locals who have already been in contact with us to offer some very kind hospitality, we know it's going to be a very memorable and positive experience.



Above is a rough map of our planned route. Starting in Tours we will navigate anti-clockwise around Italy with the first scheduled stop being Torino, then moving on to Genova, The Cinque Terre (La Spezia), Pisa, Florence, Sienna, Roma, Napoli and Pompei, before heading North again alongside the East coast of Italy.
Once on the East coast our idea is to travel to Vicenza and Verona before exploring the Dolomites and its collection of Via Ferrata, or Iron Roads. These consist of a network of iron ladders and rope bridges secured in to the sides of the mountains and they were first built during World War I to support troop movement throughout the area. I'm particularly excited about this section of the trip as the photographs I've seen from other climbers have been really whetting my appetite and sparking my sense of adventure...





Before or after the Dolomites we will be stopping off at Lago di Garda (Lake Garda) and finally Milano before beginning our journey back to Tours.



Right now our plans are all just that - in the planning stage - and although this is the rough guide we will be following, there will remain an element of flexibility and freedom throughout. Therefore it is very difficult to say right now which days we will be visiting which cities. If you like the idea of our trip and reside in any of the cities or destinations we have mentioned, or if you have any other suggestions for places we might like to visit... feel free to contact either Thomas or I here and we will see what we can do!

Our trip will begin during the end of May, beginning of June time and will finish when it is finished! We don't want to put a strict time limit on this trip but we hope it will take 2-3 weeks to complete.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to go = (

Ben Nuttall said...

Haha sounds awesome! Have a great time!

Ben

Yariko said...

Woah! That will be amazing trip! Just gotta hope Thomas' Citroën can handel it!

I'm already waiting the pictures from the trip..

Well, that's all I can say so far, I hope I can manage a trip like that someday with my friend(s)!

Good luck and so on!

TraceurZeno said...

What a fantastic trip you guys have planned.

I hope the cute wee CV can make it up those hills, even though I am sure you two would take turns pushing it.

I look forward in reading about your journey, seeing the pics and hopefully some awesome footage.

Life is a challenge and adventure, great to see you guys taking it the extra mile.

Take Care!

Zeno

Anonymous said...

hello master blane..just askin permission to translate an article written by you, the "dilution"..the article is going to be translated to the Indonesian language to be posted on the coming parkour indonesia's website on the "important article section".

please mail me at aka_shorty10@yahoo.com
or message me at parkour.net username: emon

we will begin translating once we have your permission.

thanks

Chris 'Blane' Rowat said...

Thanks for your support guys!

I'll send you an email emon but it's no problem to translate my article. :-)

*B*

Anonymous said...

Hey, whatsup?
My name's Channy and I'm a 14 yr old living in rural USA. I've been following parkour for a few years now but each year my parents told me that I couldn't pursue this because it is too dangerous. Now that I'm 14 and still devoted they have agreed to let me start because they've now figured out that I'm not going to stop trying.

I was just wondering if there were any basicc strength training excercises that you could send me that I could just do on my own for a while before I go deeper into technique based training (or if it was combined that would be cool too). I'm all in and I was just wondering if you could help me.

Please and Thanks,

Channy
channy_001@yahoo.com

P.S.: I like your blog. Trip sounds awesome.

Anonymous said...

This looks amazing. I would love to go. Keep up the good work!