Tour Op Combines Italy Walking Tours

Amalfi CoastCool news for those who want to explore Italy and get some exercise at the same time: Classic Journeys is offering two back-to-back walking adventures in Italy four times a year.

In May, June, September and October, guests can experience the Amalfi Coast, including a two-night stay on Capri (not the way day-trippers see Capri, we're told, but the way residents revel in it after the tourists get back on their boats). Then, at the end of a week of hiking coastal trails and meandering the streets of cliffhugging villages, there's Sicily, easily reached by overnight ferry from Naples (with dinner en route and private en-suite cabins) and a transfer to a 5-star hotel in Palermo.

In Amalfi, guests receive a haunting history lesson among the ruins of Pompeii; on Sicily, guests not only stroll, but actually stay among the ancient Greek ruins in the Valley of the Temples at Agrimento.

Near Amalfi, a rim walk on Mt. Vesuvius provides an awesome perspective of the crater that few people ever see. And on Sicily, the group will picnic halfway up the slopes of Mt. Etna in full view of the lava dunes.

After the heady hustle and bustle of Capri, a day trip to Lipari, largest of the Aeolian Islands off of Sicily, is a calming counterpoint. (We've heard that the Greek ruins here are better preserved and more stunning than the ones in Greece.)

Bonus: For guests who book back-to-back Amalfi and Sicily tours departing in 2010, the company will cover the costs of transitioning from Amalfi to Sicily, as well as knock off a bit extra on their second trip...all told, a savings of up to $450 per person.