The post-NRF phase of KZN Literary Tourism in South Africa has seen the development of a number
of literary trails throughout the province, funded by area-based municipalities and the National Arts Council of the
country. Those supported by the local municipalities also include a community guide training component which
strengthens considerably the community outreach component of the project. To date seven literary trails have
been compiled and printed: two on stand-alone authors who are both linked to exiting tourist sites in KZN, with the
rest being smaller area-based (writer) trails. A literary trail in essence, ‘links’ sites together and is inevitably a
construct: in effect, a strung together narrative linking places sequentially in an environment which may in fact
have had a far less seamless coexistence with the writer. This paper moves from a discussion of literary tourism, to
the concept of literary tourism sites and projects in the KZN province in South Africa, to a discussion of the
literary trail in Rome, Italy. It does this however, by presenting an insider view on ‘experiencing of the trail’ by a
South African tourist.
