Comfortable Hiking Holidays
7th Floor - 251 Consumers Road M2J 4R3 Toronto, ON, Canada

TODAY IS NATIONAL TAKE A HIKE DAY - Talk about a day that was tailor made for us! Back in 2004, we took the biggest hike of our lives; we traded in our comfortable (traditional) jobs for comfortable hiking holidays. That year, Ellen Roseman of The Toronto Star, was doing a series of articles on mid-life career changes (note that I said changes not crises ) and we were featured on the front page of the Business Section. A lot of people must have read that article because ...our website crashed and our voice mailbox was jammed as a result. We were so very grateful though for the exposure! Maybe some of you first learned about us through reading about us in the newspaper? Lots has changed since that article first appeared, but one thing has not. It says Maddalena took over the company on Jan. 1 [2004] and has loved every minute of it. Yup, still true 16 years later. Anyhow, the best way to honour such a special day as today is to . and we mean this is the nicest way possible . Go take a hike!

WHATEVER YOU’RE DOING TODAY, DO IT WITH THE CONFIDENCE OF THIS LITTLE BOY. Video taken at Mitad del Mundo, Quito, Ecuador (Galapagos Islands Adventure).

CAUTIONARY TALE AT THE AIRPORT When you travel for a living like we do, you tend to spend quite a bit of time in airports around the world. No doubt, it also makes for some interesting and amusing tales to share with you all. One particular story that comes to mind happened coming home from Kenya on our scouting trip many years ago. Our guide was insistent that we arrive at the airport at least 3 hours early, which we thought was unnecessarily cautious. However he explained ...that punctures (flat tires) and traffic are not uncommon and we needed the extra time to cover any possible eventualities. We didn’t get a puncture. We didn’t get stuck in traffic. In fact, getting to the airport was completely trouble free. We had checked in online the night before so all we needed to do when we arrived at the airport was check our bags. We had LOTS of time to kill, so we hit the duty-free shops (right?). Now you know how all airport announcements sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher made them? They are usually completely unintelligible. However, as we are standing in line at the cash in a duty-free shop, we hear clear as a bell Molino & Eschenasi, this is your last call. Whaaaaaaaaaat???? After a moment of utter confusion and disbelief, we dropped our purchases and RAN to our gate as fast as our legs could take us. At the gate, the attendant looked at us exasperated. She said they’d been paging us and where the heck have we been? But our flight wasn’t supposed to leave for hours yet! Apparently, there had been a time change, and everyone was ready and on board so we were leaving EARLY. Hmmm, didn’t know that was a thing We got the nastiest looks from our fellow passengers who had been sitting there waiting for US. And that’s also why we came home without souvenirs for our nephews .

NEW ON NETFLIX - SCANDAL IN SORRENTO We talk about this movie all the time on our Amalfi Coast Holiday because, you guessed it, it was filmed in our beloved Sorrento! Now you can watch it on Netflix (in Italian with English subtitles). The movie is a romantic comedy set in the beautiful Bay of Naples. An attractive fishmonger (played by Sofia Loren) has rented the home from a dashing marshal who now returns to Sorrento to become the town’s police chief and wants to reclaim h...is home. She refuses to leave and almost accepts a marriage proposal to the marshal, just to make a fisherman, who she is genuinely in love with, jealous. She goes along with the marshal's wooing and agrees to dump her fiancé and says she will marry him instead. When the marshal realizes what she is doing, he jilts her instead and decides to woo his own landlady instead. For those of you who have been on the Amalfi Coast Holiday, it’s especially fun to see how many places you recognize. We hope to return to hiking on the Amalfi Coast next April and October 2021

TO CAIRN OR NOT TO CAIRN We’ve all likely followed cairns along a trail; they’re often used to mark a hiking trail in a treeless area. The word cairn is derived from the Scottish Gaelic word càrn, meaning ‘heap of stones’, and they’re used by alpinists, hikers and outdoor enthusiasts pretty much around the world to show them the way. In Canada, we sometimes refer to them as Inuksuit (plural for Inukshuk). The history goes back several hundred years to the Inuit travellin...g across the stark tundra without a way to mark their trails so ice and rocks were used. Meaning "image of man's spirit", they pointed a safe passage over land and water. (There are different kinds of Inuksuit for different reasons.) Unfortunately, though, their significance is being blurred by people who are erecting cairns for creative or recreational purposes. It can also harm the environment and disrupt ecosystems by damaging shelters for animals and insects. When you come upon a sea of cairns, they may not likely lead you astray as you can surmise that they are likely ornamental, but imagine if you are on a hike where there are few trees (picture Iceland or parts of the Rota Vicentina in Portugal) and you come across a cairn or two. You could easily be led to believe that they are there to communicate the way. As a general rule, we should avoid building rock cairns for fun in places where they could be confused as trail markers. Doing so could send hikers in the wrong direction by misrepresenting the trail. FUN FACT: The Inukshuk was chosen as the logo for the 2010 Olympic Games because it mirrors the Canadian spirit of friendship and community. There are many kinds of Inuksuit and they mean different things depending on how and where they are built. An Inukshuk in the shape of a person signifies safety, hope and friendship.

DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND WHO LIKES TO HIKE? Then invite them to join our page! It's so easy to do and it’s a win-win for both of us. On our Facebook page, look for an option to Invite Friends. This is usually found when you click on the ellipsis (...) next to the magnifying glass search icon. Then just click away. This gives us greater exposure, and the next time you’re on a Comfortable Hiking Holiday, your friends will be able to follow along or maybe even join you! Until then though, we have lots of good information to share

OUR FAVOURITE ONLINE EXERCISE CLASSES I (Maddalena) am a gym rat. Or rather, I was a gym rat. Now I exercise at home. Both Robert and I exercise regularly (in addition to hiking) and we’ve taken full advantage of some online programs/channels. The following programs/channels tick off all the boxes : Sensible exercise choices from cardio to weight-training (with and without weights), functional fitness and yoga... Different difficulty levels so you can go at a pace that challenges you but is still within your abilities Various lengths from 20 minutes to an hour (because let’s face it, sometimes we just need a quickie ) Easy to follow HASfit (Heart and Soul Fitness) I cannot tell you how many times I’ve joined Coach Kozak and Claudia from my very own living room. I particularly enjoy their weight training routines and I’ve seen a definitive improvement in my strength over the past months. Evolve Functional Fitness functional fitness relates to exercises that train your muscles for daily tasks by simulating common movements you might do at home, at work or in sports. (A great illustration is how being able to do squats mimics the ability to go to the loo ). I do one at least once a week. Yoga With Kassandra I know many of you already do yoga, but if you’re looking to get started, Yoga with Kassandra is a great place to start. Personally, I have been doing Yin Yoga with her every Sunday since March. Live Anabolic primarily aimed at men over 40 who want to get back in shape. What I particularly like about it is that it addresses concerns to us more mature guys, in terms of weight training, exercise and nutrition. The two main presenters are themselves in their 40’s and 50’s, so you can easily relate to them. Gravity Transformation loaded with information on everything from burning fat, proper training technique, meal plans and the like. It is presented in a simple, no-nonsense, easy to understand manner and the main presenter is very knowledgeable. In fact, Robert purchased a 12 week workout program from them and enjoyed it very much. All of these are available on You Tube, but some are also on Facebook, Instagram, and some even have their own apps you can download. Do you have any programs that you’ve found and really liked? Share them with us in the comments below. Stay fit! Stay safe!

TALES FROM THE TRAIL - IT'S AN EMERGENCY! We’re often asked if we’ve ever had any accidents on the trails, and of course, there have been a few falls over the years. I think our very first incident ever happened in Tuscany in 2005 when a guest rolled over on her ankle. We didn’t know, at first, if it was a bad sprain or a break but luckily, we were close to the end of our hike and there were some workmen in the area who offered to bring our guest back to town in their pickup ...truck. San Marcello, the town where we were staying in the mountains, had a little hospital, so while Robert brought the group back to the hotel for dinner, I (Maddalena) brought our guest to the hospital for x-rays. It was the end of the day and their orthopedic specialist was already gone, so they decided to cast her foot until she could be re-evaluated the following day. For any of you who’ve had a cast, you may know that to check for circulation and that the cast is not too tight, they do a capillary nail refill test where they press down on the nailbed and see if the colour returns quickly. This is the reason you shouldn’t wear nail polish to the hospital. Well, guess what? In anticipation of her holiday in Tuscany, our guest had gotten a pedicure beforehand and so she had lovely dark red nail polish on her toes. Casting was delayed until we could find nail polish remover. So we waited . and waited. and waited. Finally, I decided to take things into my own hands. I knew San Marcello well and the store wasn’t far from the hospital but it was closing time and had only minutes to spare. I ran like the dickens down the street to the Unicoop just as the manager was rolling down the security shutters of the store. Aspetta! Aspetta! HO UN'EMERGENZA! (Wait! Wait! I HAVE AN EMERGENCY!) I shouted at the store manager. Concerned, he asked how he could help? I said I desperately need NAIL POLISH REMOVER! After a look and an eye roll, he bought my explanation and allowed me to crawl under the shutters to go get some nail polish remover. (In my mind, I pictured it more like Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair when he narrowly slips into the museum under the closing gate, but I digress.) Anyhow, our guest got her cast but rather than go home, she decided to stay in Tuscany with us. She said she would still rather be in Tuscany with a sprained ankle than at home with a sprained ankle - talk about making the best of it! She got a cover for her cast & crutches so she could do some sightseeing, after all you don’t need to be able to walk to enjoy the wineries. And our dear friend and hotel owner, Riccardo Lenzini, carried her up and down the stairs at the Albergo Ristorante Il Cacciatore whenever she needed - talk about hospitality! P.S. The bottle of nail polish remover was later donated to the Hospital Lorenzo Pacini in San Marcello, Pistoiese.

The 10 Types of People You Meet on the Trail (Reproduced from Outside Magazine, 2017) Of course, none of these is us .