Life is busy with six grandkids. My days of 6 months planning for a hiking trip are over. It’s fun, and not a chore. In fact I love the planning almost as much as the hiking. The hike we are doing is called the Tor des Geants, a circuit of 350k around the Aosta Valley and I plan the trip using two Cicerone guide books. The top half is the Grand Paradiso (Alt Via 2) and the bottom half is the Alt Via 1.
But as this hike is the Tor des Geants Ultra Trail so the organisers have documented the entire trail which I imported into Google Earth to get a birds eye view of where we are hiking. Then it was a matter of dividing the 350k into about 15k each day, and arranging accommodation every night in either a Rifugio high in the mountains or a one or two star hotel in the valley. There's nothing primitive about Rifugios in Italy. They are very civilised, often with a 4 course evening meal with wine or beer, a continental breakfast in the morning, and a take-away lunch if needed. Most have a shower and we usually sleep in a dormitory with several other hikers. These catered rifugios make it possible to carry a 6kg back pack with just a change of clothes, ranger and of course my beloved MacBook 12 inch computer which I have carried on every hike for 7 years to enable me to write a blog.