Village Italy

I asked this question too and the responses satisfied me in regards to navigating the tour even with bad knees. Having been to Italy a few times I know not much is level and there will be a lot of stair climbing and uneven surfaces. We will be on that tour in April. Hope this helps.

try watching an appropriate Rick video and note the surroundings. I was watching one the other day and at times he was climbing almost vertically up staircases!

If the tour description says "strenuous", then you should believe it. We found that tour doable for us older folk, but we do a lot of hiking and walking to stay in shape.

I see overall it's rated as moderate.

I did this about 9 years ago and at that time was doing long walks of 10-12 miles once a week. It was the 3rd of 3 back-to-back-to-back tours (21 day Best of Europe, Best of Paris and Village Italy). I did not have any problem but I was in pretty good shape then.

It looks like the strenuous days are Assisi and the truffle hunt (not strenuous!) and the day of Umbrian Hill Towns. Assisi is hilly and there are a lot of stairs first from the bus parking area up to the main town (unless the escalator is working) and then thru town and in the Basilica. This is a transit day so you'll have to do some of it but if you are fatigued you can easily have the guide show you were to meet up for the walk back to the bus (blessedly downhill). The Umbrian Hill towns day - hard to say as it looks like this is up to the guide on where to go. We did Civita di Bagnareggio which I did not like but I have an issue with heights and hated the bridge out there. This is on one of the full days at Orvieto so you can easily skip this day and hang around Orvieto. There is plenty to do and the views across the landscape are awesome.

I'm surprised Siena is only rated as a moderate day as it's very hilly as well and depending on where the bus will be able to drop you, you'll probably go down then up a steep slope into town, then down the slope to the main square, then back up to the Cathedral. I was there in October and my calves were barking after my 2 days there!

For comparison I did Best of Italy last Fall. I'm 73, not in as good a shape as I was 9 years ago but managed well. I was pooped after Siena and Assisi was harder than I remembered but I kept up with the tour without a problem.

For any Italy trip, I'd recommend you add in stairs or hill work to your regular fitness routine.

In Assisi, could you use the buses and taxis to take out some of the hills?