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Choose your role on the Goethe Route

A historic corridor from Innsbruck to Bologna, re-imagined for today's Silver-Age travelers — and the family-run hotels and storytellers who host them.

Choose your path

For Travelers 55+

Walk the first steps of Goethe's Italian Journey

A short, gentle quiz to see how you'd like to travel this next chapter of life — tempo, comfort and meaning, not just destinations.

Start the journey quiz

For Hotels

Become a founding Goethe Route hotel

Share a few numbers about your shoulder season and see a clear snapshot of your empty midweek room-nights and what they could become.

For hotel partners

For Photographers & Filmmakers

Join the Footsteps Visual Guild

A curated circle of photographers and filmmakers who help us tell Europe's Grand Routes — with full credit, a dedicated page and portfolio links.

For storytellers

One route for now: Innsbruck → Brixen-Bressanone → Bolzano → Merano → Molveno → Riva del Garda → Limone Sul Garda → Toscolano Maderno → Salò → Verona → Venice → Lido di Jesolo → Ferrara → Bologna. More to come.

The Goethe Route: a historic line for a new chapter

In September 1786, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe left his life in Germany and quietly crossed the Alps into Italy. He travelled under a false name, stayed in modest inns, and spent his days walking, observing and writing.

The road from Innsbruck to Bologna became more than a line on a map. It was a turning point: a way to step out of an old role, look at life from a distance and grow into a new chapter.

We call this line the Goethe Route — and we treat it as a living invitation for people who want their travels to mean something in the second half of life.

  • The first Grand Route in the FOOTSTEPS universe — one clear corridor instead of "all of Italy".
  • Strung like a necklace of stays: 2–4 well-chosen hotels rather than a rush of check-ins and check-outs.
  • Designed around later-life travel psychology: energy, comfort and meaning, not FOMO.
Read the full story of the Goethe Route

The Route

Innsbruck

↓

Brixen-Bressanone

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Bolzano

↓

Merano

↓

Molveno

↓

Riva del Garda

↓

Limone Sul Garda

↓

Toscolano Maderno

↓

Salò

↓

Verona

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Venice

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Lido di Jesolo

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Ferrara

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Bologna

If you're traveling

You're not 25 with a backpack — and you're not finished dreaming either. We help you see how you'd like to travel this chapter: gentle or active, reflective or celebratory, always at a human pace.

If you run a hotel

You may have too many quiet midweeks in spring or autumn. We help you see your shoulder-season opportunity and connect it with guests who actually want to be there then — Silver-Age travelers with time and curiosity.

If you tell stories

You've built an eye over years, and you care about more than quick clicks. We give your work a place inside coherent journeys — credited, contextualised, and linked back to your own portfolio.

The Grand Routes Magazine

An online magazine following Goethe's line from Innsbruck to Bologna — through innkeepers' kitchens, quiet piazzas, lake shores and the people who move through them.

Early issues focus on the Goethe Route. Later, we'll trace new Grand Routes across Europe.

Autumn light on Lake Garda

Early-morning lakeside walks, soft water light, and the first guests coming down for breakfast.

Evenings in family-run inns

Hosts greeting guests by name, dinner being plated in the kitchen, laughter drifting in from the dining room.

Quiet piazzas of Verona

Empty streets just after rain, stone facades, and the way the city exhales when the crowds are gone.

Browse the magazine

Soon, you'll see these stories inside our online magazine and route guides.

Built for the Silver Age, not for mass tourism

Our travelers are mostly between 55 and 75. They don't want to rush through ten cities in eight days — they want journeys that respect their energy, their comfort and the meaning of this stage of life.

  • Tempo & energy — Itineraries that balance movement with rest, based on how travel feels best for you these days.
  • Comfort & access — Attention to walking, stairs, terrain and transport, so days feel doable rather than daunting.
  • Meaning over checklists — Using travel to reconnect, recover, reinvent or celebrate — not just to "see the sights".

"I think of the Goethe Route as a string of quiet chapters. You decide how many to read this year — and how slowly."

— Enzo, your Grand Routes correspondent

For family-run hotels along the route

We're assembling a small circle of founding hotels between Innsbruck and Bologna — characterful, owner-managed places that fit the Goethe Route story. As a founding partner, your hotel receives a lifetime profile page and a clear view of your shoulder-season opportunity.

  • • Founding Partner Snapshot – a one-page, printable overview of your rooms, quiet months and estimated empty midweek nights.
  • • String-of-pearls positioning – we place you on a Grand Route where guests stay longer instead of passing through.
See how the Founding Partner Snapshot works

For photographers & filmmakers

The Footsteps Visual Guild is our curated circle of visual storytellers. You keep your copyright, grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence for selected editorial use, and receive full credit, a dedicated page and direct links back to your portfolio.

  • • Assignments along historic routes – starting with Innsbruck–Bologna, later extending to other Grand Routes.
  • • Future marketplace (optional) – planned image sales with you setting prices and FOOTSTEPS taking no more than 20% on each sale.
Learn how collaboration works today

Join the Grand Routes Society

We're gathering a small circle of travelers 55+ who feel that this stage of life is a beginning, not an ending. As a member of the Grand Routes Society, you'll receive occasional letters from our travel avatar, Enzo, early glimpses of new Grand Routes, and stories from family-run hotels and storytellers along the Innsbruck–Bologna corridor.

No daily deals. No countdown clocks. Just thoughtful travel ideas for your chapter of life.