Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes follows a real 1878 walk from Le Monastier through Pradelles and the hills of Gévaudan to Pont-de-Montvert and Saint-Jean-du-Gard, with a night at a Trappist monastery on the way.
The route follows his stubborn donkey Modestine from the first purchase to her sale, at the end of the trail that now bears his name (GR 70). One stop, near Fouzilhac, is approximate because the book gives no precise position.
Isabella Bird's 1873 ride through Colorado, told in A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, runs from Greeley and Fort Collins to Estes Park, Longs Peak and Manitou Springs. She lived out of doors and on horseback, and climbed a 14,700-foot peak with the guide Rocky Mountain Jim.
Six stops follow her letters from the Plains into the mountains and on to Colorado Springs. Most pins mark towns, because her letters rarely name exact buildings.
In 1970 Thor Heyerdahl sailed the papyrus boat Ra II from Safi in Morocco to Barbados, with reed from Lake Tana, builders from Lake Titicaca and a finish in Barbados. Today the boat sits in the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo.
The route follows the boat from its materials and builders to the departure, the landfall and the museum. Most stops are approximate: sources name the lakes, the port and the island, not exact docks.
Leif Erikson's voyage runs from Eiríksstaðir in Iceland through Brattahlíð in Greenland to L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, the only confirmed Norse site in North America outside Greenland.
The route follows the sagas: a boyhood on Erik the Red's farms, a crew of thirty-five, and the lands Leif named Helluland and Markland. The saga lands are only traditionally identified, so their pins are approximate regions rather than exact spots.
St Petersburg's history can be walked in an afternoon: from the Peter and Paul Fortress, where the city was founded in 1703, past Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospect to Senate Square, Palace Square and the cruiser Aurora on the Neva.
Seven stops follow the city from its foundation through the Decembrist revolt of 1825, the assassination of Alexander II, Bloody Sunday in 1905 and the events of October 1917. The stops zigzag across the centre, so the pins are markers rather than a single line.
The Salem witch trials of 1692 began in Salem Village (now Danvers), reached the Witch House and Proctor's Ledge in Salem, and are remembered today at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead and the Salem memorial. More than 200 people were accused, thirty were found guilty and nineteen were hanged.
This route follows the story from the Parris household and the Nurse farm to the magistrate's house, the execution site and the 1992 memorial park. The Parsonage stop is approximate and has no map pin.
Babur, born in Andijan in 1483, fought his way from Samarkand and Kabul to Panipat and Agra and founded the Mughal line that later gave the world the Taj Mahal. The route crosses Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and India.
It follows his conquests and his gardens, and ends at the Taj Mahal, whose charbagh garden follows the pattern Babur introduced. Chauburji's identification as his first tomb is disputed.
Leonardo da Vinci's life runs from Vinci, where he was born in 1452, through Milan, Florence and Rome to Amboise in France, where he died in 1519 and was buried at the château.
The route follows six places tied to his life: the Museo Leonardiano in Vinci, Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, the Belvedere Courtyard in Rome, Clos Lucé and the Château d'Amboise. Where his remains lie today is only presumed.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 played out across a few kilometres of Petrograd, now Saint Petersburg: the Tauride Palace, Finland Station, the Smolny Institute, the cruiser Aurora and the Winter Palace. All five can still be seen today.
The route follows the year from the February Revolution to the October seizure of power, and separates what the sources record from the legend of the "storming" of the Winter Palace. Dates are Old Style, as used at the time.
Alexander Nevsky's career runs from Pereslavl-Zalessky and Novgorod to the Neva at Ust-Izhora, Pskov, frozen Lake Peipus and, at the end, Gorodets and Vladimir, where he was buried in 1263.
The route follows the prince from his birth in 1221 to his death on the way home from the Golden Horde. Several battle sites are only believed locations, and the accounts of the Neva and the Ice come mostly from Russian chronicles.
Hadrian's Wall ran 73 miles across northern England, from Segedunum at Wallsend on the Tyne to Bowness-on-Solway, begun in AD 122 under Emperor Hadrian. Six stops, from Chesters and Housesteads to Vindolanda and Birdoswald, show how it was built, changed and garrisoned.
The route follows the wall west, from Roman forts to the Solway shore. The exact western end of the wall near Bowness is not known.
Hans Christian Andersen's Denmark runs from a cobbler's house in Odense to the Royal Danish Theatre, the colourful quay of Nyhavn and the bronze Little Mermaid on Copenhagen's Langelinie.
The route follows the shoemaker's son who left Odense at 14 to become an actor; a theatre colleague told him he was a poet instead. Two Odense houses, three Copenhagen landmarks and a ride at Tivoli show where his life and his stories touch the map. The birthplace house is traditionally identified, not proven.
Astrid Lindgren's Pippi, Emil and the children of Bullerbyn trace back to Näs and Sevedstorp near Vimmerby, to the Gibberyd farm that played Katthult, and to Mariannelund, where Emil heads for the doctor.
The route runs from the author's birthplace through the village that served as the model for Bullerbyn to the film farm and the theme park. Katthult and Bullerbyn are story places; the pins mark their real stand-ins.
XO, Kitty, the spin-off of the To All the Boys films, is set at a fictional Seoul school but filmed at real places: Incheon International Airport, Kaywon University of Art and Design, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Hwaseong Fortress's Seojangdae.
The route follows Kitty's first season from landing at the airport to the end-of-term talent show, taking in a hotel exterior at State Tower Namsan, Nodeul Island on the Han River and the Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan. The school itself is fictional, and its interiors were shot at other sites around Seoul.
Good Bye, Lenin! is set in East Berlin and shot largely on Karl-Marx-Allee and around Alexanderplatz, where Alex hides the fall of East Germany from his coma-waking mother. Its famous flying Lenin statue was filmed on the avenue.
The route follows the plot through five places: the Kerners' flat on Berolinastraße, Alexanderplatz, the former Coca-Cola headquarters in Lichterfelde, Karl-Marx-Allee and the dacha in Finsterwalde. The flat's interiors were studio sets, so that pin is approximate.
Netflix's Lupin is set across Paris, from the Louvre and the Pont des Arts to Place Vendôme, with a Normandy detour to the cliffs of Étretat. Assane Diop, a modern gentleman thief inspired by Arsène Lupin, uses real landmarks as his stage.
The route follows six filming locations: the Louvre, the Musée Nissim de Camondo, the Pont des Arts, the Luxembourg Gardens, Étretat and Place Vendôme. Exact spots in Étretat are not named by the sources.
Las películas del Cornetto de Edgar Wright se rodaron en localizaciones reales: «Zombies Party» en Crouch End, North Finchley y un pub de New Cross; «Arma fatal» en Wells y Mill Hill; y «Bienvenidos al fin del mundo» en Letchworth Garden City.
Esta ruta sigue las tres películas por orden de estreno, desde un norte de Londres asolado por zombis hasta un pueblo de Somerset que esconde asesinos y una ruta de bares en Hertfordshire donde los vecinos resultan ser androides. Las paradas combinan localizaciones de rodaje con las escenas que se filmaron en ellas.
«Come, reza, ama», la película de 2010 basada en las memorias de Elizabeth Gilbert, se rodó en torno a la plaza Navona de Roma, en una pizzería de Nápoles, en Pataudi, en la India, y en torno a Ubud y la playa de Padang Padang, en Bali.
Julia Roberts interpreta a Liz, que deja una vida asentada por un año de viajes: en las memorias, cuatro meses en Italia comiendo, tres en la India rezando y el final del año en Bali. Esta ruta sigue esas tres etapas por los lugares donde se filmaron las escenas. El ashram de las memorias no se nombra, así que la parada de la India marca solo el pueblo donde la película lo rodó.
«Un mundo de fantasía» (1971) se rodó en Alemania: las puertas de la fábrica de Wonka son una fábrica de gas de Múnich, la sala de chocolate se construyó en los Estudios de Baviera y el vuelo final sobre la ciudad son imágenes de Nördlingen.
La ruta sigue la película en el orden de la historia, desde la tienda de golosinas de Bill y la calle de Charlie Bucket hasta las puertas de la fábrica, el decorado del río de chocolate y el Wonkavator de cristal. Algunas marcas señalan solo una calle, y la sala de chocolate fue un decorado de estudio.
«Pulp Fiction», «Jackie Brown» y «Érase una vez en… Hollywood» se rodaron en torno a Los Ángeles, desde un restaurante de Hawthorne hasta Musso & Frank, en Hollywood Boulevard.
La ruta sigue las tres películas por orden de estreno: el restaurante y el local de boxeo de «Pulp Fiction», el centro comercial Del Amo y el club de striptease de «Jackie Brown», y luego Musso & Frank, la librería Larry Edmunds, el cine Bruin y el rancho de Simi Valley de «Érase una vez en… Hollywood». Varios lugares han desaparecido o han sido reconstruidos, como el Hawthorne Grill y el rancho Spahn original, y los marcadores señalan las localizaciones de rodaje.
«Cuando Harry encontró a Sally» empieza con un viaje en coche desde la Universidad de Chicago y se instala en Manhattan, del Arco de Washington Square y Central Park a Katz's Delicatessen, donde Sally demuestra su famoso argumento.
La ruta sigue a la pareja desde la graduación de 1977 hasta la declaración de amor de Nochevieja en el Puck Building, con siete paradas: la Cobb Gate, el Arco de Washington Square, el Loeb Boathouse, el templo de Dendur, Katz's, el Cafe Luxembourg y el Puck Building. Las paradas siguen el orden de las escenas de la película, no un único recorrido.
«Todo en un día» (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) es la carta de amor de John Hughes a Chicago, rodada en la Sears Tower, el Art Institute y Wrigley Field, con un desfile en el centro y una casa de paredes de cristal en Highland Park.
La ruta sigue a Ferris, Sloane y Cameron a lo largo de un día de escuela robado: desde el instituto de Northbrook usado para los exteriores, por el Loop y el North Side, hasta el garaje donde el Ferrari encuentra su final. El lugar del desfile es aproximado, y la casa final es privada.
«Rocky» está ambientada y en gran parte rodada en Filadelfia: la casa de Rocky Balboa en Kensington, el Mercado Italiano de la calle 9, Pat's King of Steaks, las escalinatas del Museo de Arte y el pabellón Spectrum, en el sur de Filadelfia, aparecen en la película de 1976.
La ruta sigue la historia desde el combate inicial del 25 de noviembre de 1975 hasta el combate por el título del día de Año Nuevo. El Spectrum ya no existe, y el combate en sí se rodó en Los Ángeles.
«Conan el Bárbaro» se rodó por toda España: la aldea cimeria en Valsaín, la Rueda del Dolor cerca de Solosancho, las rocas de la bruja en la Ciudad Encantada, y los desiertos, dunas y salinas de Almería.
La Era Hiboria es inventada; todas las paradas de esta ruta son lugares reales. La ruta sigue la película desde la incursión en la aldea de Conan hasta la Montaña del Poder, y termina en los estudios Shepperton, en Inglaterra, donde un Conan ya mayor, convertido en rey, pronuncia las últimas palabras.
