1

Busking laws are likely to be local and not determined by country.

Direct route from England to Istanbul will not take you through Italy or Greece.

I suggest you get a map or use a website like viamichelin.com or google maps to plan your route.

Ruth

2

Good and very well signmarked trails from the Channel up to Tuscany/Umbria. Then it will get more difficult....

3

Are you literally going to walk from England to Istanbul? Do you really think that can be done in one summer season before the snow flies? If you travel for six months, or about 180 days, you will have to walk nearly 17 kilometers per day (without breaks). And that's the most direct route, which you will probably want to avoid. Since I've never tried walking cross continent, I don't know if that is reasonable to attempt or not. Not trying to throw water on your plan, but want to make sure you're thinking it through.

You'll probably want to stay on country roads with less traffic, which is what the touring bicycle riders look for, too. So you might want to search for some cross-continent bike routes (Google "Across Europe on a bicycle"), and ask around on the "On Your Bike" forum here on the Thorn Tree. The cross-continent bike trip is reasonably common, so you shouldn't have trouble finding route suggestions.

Dave

4

I fear Dan will have to use some country roads from Central Italy onwards. But up to there, it's much better to use hiking trails (they exist!).

5

Busking rights are very patchy. There is a possibility that on one day you will be loved and on another day you will be annoying some locals and the police will move you on.
You are planning all this walking and also busking, are you? That sounds like a lot of heavy gear to be carrying for about 2,000 miles. What instruments do you busk with?

6

Worked it out via my own route at 30-40 miles a day 5 days out of a week also planning at catching a few trains to make up for days spent busking or just playing in a nice spot ,but thankyou for the hikeing & cycleing roads will look them up! its near enough 2500miles ;) reckon an acoustic guitar and harmonica ain't to much extra to carry weighs about the same s a couple of yellow pages.

7

"Worked it out via my own route at 30-40 miles a day"
I suppose you know that the excellent French sentiers de grande randonnée and the signmarked Swiss ant Italian hiking trails are usually about 50 to 100 per cent longer than the corresponding highways. In the Alps and in the Apennine mountains (steep gradients) it's usually not possible to cover more than 3 kms/2 miles/hr.

8

I'm an experienced hiker. I've also walked on some of the GR trails in France and various hiking and cycling trails in Italy. I would never expect to be able to walk 30 miles in a day. 20-25 is pushing it, unless you want to be walking 8-10 hours at a decent pace every single day. And if you're walking that much, you'll want to eat a ton, get a good night's sleep, and have very comfortable clothing, shoes, pack, etc. It's doable, but maybe not much fun.

Your itinerary would be much, much, more practical (and enjoyable) if you hitched, walked, took trains/buses, and just generally varied your modes of transportation.

As for busking, an acoustic guitar isn't necessarily heavy (although some are deceptively so), but it will probably be unwieldy. You will also need a careful balance between crappiness (so you don't feel bad when it gets beat up, crushed, stolen, etc.) and playability/tone. You might want to try to find a parlor, junior, or travel sized guitar, which will be smaller, a bit lighter, and (especially the junior ones) cheaper.

What kind of music do you play? I take it from the instrumentation it's folk/rock/blues/singer-songwriter or something in those veins. Busking is tough, especially in places where you don't speak the language. Have you busked around your area? Getting experience in that is key, it can be nerve-wracking. You probably won't make enough to completely fund your travel, but you might be able to supplement your savings pretty well and stretch your money. Just make sure you're in the clear before starting; some places will confiscate your equipment if you're busking illegally.

9

Thankyou all for the help but heading to oz instead now and busking their is cool like a cucumber (although proberly not on a hot day) thank you all all the same for the realism with hikeing though and your are damn right about the distances practiced on some of the coast path and yea its hard work, and just wouldent be a very nice traveling experience at those kind of distances either.
And I enjoy music as a whole never really thourght to class it to a specific genra tho so long as it comes from the heart. Not much, more woried about the return flight with a guitar some of that luggage gets thrown about like a shot putt comp.
Anyway thankyou all so much for the realism/frieandly advice/help on this matter it has been taken on board x