with our Virtual Walk and Jogging DVDs and HD Downloads!
Why not exercise tomorrow by walking in Venice?
Or in Cairo, or in Rome, or England's Cotswolds?
The hard part is choosing where you want to walk because we have Virtual Walk Scenery DVDs filmed in over 50 beautiful locations in Italy, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Egypt, Turkey, France, Canada, and the USA including Hawaii, Maine, Florida, North and South Carolina, and California.
To see the complete list of DVDs available, please click here, to see the list of HD Downloads click here, or to watch video samples of each of our walks, click here.
“Hi! My husband and I just absolutely enjoyed your walking tour of Rome... neither of us can believe how quickly our workout flew by! It was almost as great as being there!! We've already purchased the rest of the Italy dvd's and would love to know if and when you plan to release any more...either of Italy or France. I would buy them right away!!! Thank you so much...keep traveling and making these wonderful dvd's. It really helps us to want to stay in shape! Arlene ” Read more customer comments here.
Place one of our treadmill virtual walks into your DVD player and step on to your treadmill, Nordic Track, exercise bike, elliptical, or stair stepper.
To your left is a canal in Venice, to your right is St. Mark's Square, and straight ahead is a thousand years of history and beauty! Our Treadmill Virtual Walk DVDs are the perfect way to experience some of the most beautiful cities in Europe while exercising, losing weight, and getting fit on your treadmill, airdyne, elliptical, or stair stepper.
With our Virtual Walk DVDs or HD Downloads for your computer you could be instantly transported:
The camera pulls you forward past amazing scenery: over the Rialto Bridge, down a winding street, and through a wisteria-adorned piazza.
You'll walk along the Via Veneto in Rome, follow a narrowboat path in London's Little Venice, explore the English Countryside in Kent, or take a stroll at dusk on the island of Murano. These Virtual Walk DVDs are the perfect way to get your low impact workout for the day while having fun!
Customers tell us that our Treadmill Virtual Walk DVDs help motivate them to use their exercise equipment and get their daily exercise, burn calories, lose weight, and stay physically fit! And our DVDs will work with almost any exercise or fitness equipment, such as treadmills, ellipticals, stair steppers, Nordic Tracks, and exercise bikes. Please take a moment to ready the enthusiastic comments from our customers by clicking here.
Our Treadmill Virtual Walk DVDs truly make exercising fun! and make the perfect gift for family and friends.
Our Customers tell us that our DVDs are worth much more! Order yours today.
Filmed with Camera Stabilization Equipment, the television camera is constantly moving you forward through beautiful scenery, through a narrow alleyway in Venice, up over an ancient footbridge in London, down a stone path in Amalfi, into a colorful piazza in Rome - you never know what delights await you around the next corner!
VITA Digital Productions was established with one idea in mind: to produce high-quality virtual experience European Travel Scenery DVDs. Our original concept was to film Virtual Walks through some of Europe's most beautiful cities. Using camera stabilization equipment, we are able to film these virtual walks while actually walking through streets, up steps, around corners, while the camera seems to float. Our Virtual Walk DVDs are designed to be watched by people while exercising on their treadmill, Nordic Track, TreadClimber, Elliptical Trainer, Stepper, Stair Climber, or stationary exercise bike. Our hope was to make the time spent exercising fun and interesting by viewing our Treadmill Virtual Walks while getting a good cardio workout.
We believed that these Virtual Walk DVDs could motivate people to utilize their exercise equipment more frequently by providing them with interesting video and audio to view while exercising. But you never know if an idea that sounds reasonable to you will actually be accepted by others - you just have to hope it will. With that in mind, we proceeded to file the articles of incorporation with our state and we also started investigating what professional tv equipment to purchase for our new company.
With my 25 year background in television and with our newly purchased professional equipment, we flew to Venice for our first shoot. We shot Treadmill Virtual Walks through the crowded streets and alleyways of Venice, and on the nearby islands of Burano, Murano, and Torcello. We had chosen Venice to be our first project because of our love of the city and its unique locale. Our trip to Venice did not disappoint us - it is truly a magic city. Leaving Venice exhausted after 10 days of shooting, we flew home and rested.
A month later we flew to London to shoot for 2 weeks. We had the singular opportunity to film the Queen's arrival at Royal Ascot. And we did film more Virtual Walks in and around London, including delighful walks in Hyde Park, along the waterway known as Little Venice, the New River Walk in Islington, and a walk on the Hampstead Heath.
Leaving London exhausted, we flew directly to Rome and fourteen more days of work! But we were in incredible Rome - the eternal city. We quickly discovered that Rome is an extremely difficult city for a videographer. Crowds and other problems make videography a challenge. We were able to shoot virtual walks along the famous Via Veneto, made famous by "La Dolce Vita," another walk through the Campo de Fiori, another along the Tiber River, and still another through the beautiful Pincio Gardens of Rome. Taking a bus to the outskirts of the city one day, we shot a virtual walk on the ancient Via Appia.
September 11, 2001, affected us deeply on many levels. We temporarily suspended international travel - our camera stabilization equipment, batteries, and other tv equipment were just too unusual for the heightened security which was in place. So for a few years, our focus was on other aspects of television production. I was asked to film the "Behind the Scenes" and cast interviews featurettes for two motion pictures along with other tv projects.
In 2003, we returned to the United Kingdom to film more virtual walks. This time we filmed virtual walks in the English Countryside: a walk from Eynsford to the village of Shoreham, following the Darent River in Kent. We also filmed a circular walk from the village of Otford through some beautiful scenery and back to our starting point. Along the way, we met some lovely people and had a nice chat. We traveled to Salisbury to film a virtual walk in the area around the Cathedral. In Salisbury we had the opportunity to see one of the surviving copies of the Magna Carta. We also went to Canterbury Cathedral where we filmed a virtual walk and attended "Evensong."
I finally found time to edit our first virtual walk, "A Morning in Venice," and get it on the market. We were amazed at the positive reaction it received. Customers said: "Why hasn't someone thought of this before?" and "It's just like being there!" and "I want more." We were very gratified with the reaction to our initial concept. We quickly followed with virtual walks in the English Countryside, Rome, along the Appian Way, London Waterways, and Burano. Since then, we've received hundreds of emails from our Treadmill Virtual Walk customers telling us how much they enjoy exercising on their treadmills and exercise bikes with our Virtual Walk DVDs.
In 2005, we returned from three weeks filming more Treadmill Virtual Walks along the beautiful Amalfi Coast, on the isle of Capri, in the ancient city of Pompeii, and in the medieval town of Viterbo, north of Rome, this time shooting in High Definition ( 1080i ) and widescreen.
In 2006, we returned from two weeks filming more Treadmill Virtual Walks on the Hawaiian Islands of Oahu and Kauai. While on Oahu, we filmed a virtual walk on the famous Hau'ula Loop Trail, another along several beaches, and another walk through the beautiful Hoomaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe.
The Cotswolds - A Week Is Not Enough
After spending a few weeks in October of 2003 in southeast England, walking the footpaths of the Darent River Valley, we thought we had a good idea of what the autumn was like in the English countryside. But since returning from our recent late-September trip to the Cotswolds, we have a newfound appreciation of yet another beautiful part of England.
For my husband, driving on the wrong side of the road turned out to be even more difficult than he had expected, especially since the Brits have so many "round-abouts" and their traffic pattern in those rotaries goes to the left instead of the right. My job was to constantly remind Wayne to "Stay on the LEFT! as he made turns. For anyone who is planning a trip to the UK, it would be a good idea to pay a little extra and rent an automatic drive. We opted for a straight-drive and soon discovered that everything is on the wrong side for an American driver: not only the driver's seat, but the gear shift and the rear-view mirror as well!
Autumn was a good time to visit because the villages were not crowded with tourists, and in many cases we felt that we had the village to ourselves. We visited many of the larger, well-known villages but actually preferred the smaller ones off the beaten path. We were there for a week in the Cotswolds to film more episodes of our unique European Treadmill Virtual Walk DVDs, designed to take the boredom out of the time spent on treadmills, Nordic Tracks, and exercise bikes. During the past 5 years, Wayne and I have traveled extensively in Italy and the United Kingdom filming these Treadmill Virtual Walks and are constantly searching for picturesque locales to film additional walks.
The tiny village in which we stayed for a week, Stretton-on-Fosse, had the most awe-inspiring night skies imaginable. Since we were so far removed from cities of any size, each night the sky would become inky black, and millions and millions of stars would be twinkling against this sea of black - more stars than we had ever seen before. It's easy to understand why the early inhabitants of England built structures like Stonehenge and the Rollright Stones - if one could look at a sky like that every night, one would realize there was something truly mysterious about the universe.
The Cotswolds were somewhat of a surprise because they turned out to be even more picturesque than we had hoped. We read a number of books on the area before our trip and knew that this part of England was officially recognized as an "Area of Natural Beauty." What an understatement! Each village we visited during our busy week was clean and well-tended, with magnificent flower gardens in front of small stone cottages. We soon decided that the climate, with its frequent rain and indirect sunlight from cloudy skies, was responsible for making the gardens and window boxes so beautiful.
One day, while filming in the little village of Upper Slaughter, we encountered a hand-painted sign on the walkway to the entrance which simply said, “Flowers in Church." Entering the church of St. Peter, we were greeted with such a profusion of flowers that we assumed a wedding had just been held a few days earlier. In fact, the ladies of the village periodically adorn the church with flowers from their gardens.
Throughout the Cotswolds, Wayne and I saw a common thread: the cottages, large and small , were constructed with the distinctive "honey-colored" limestone from local quarries. And each village, no matter how small, had an impressive stone church, usually in some way connected to the lucrative sheep and wool trade which was thriving here during Medieval times.
We spent most days walking the Cotswold Way and filming more of our Virutal Walk DVDs. For locals, walking in the Cotswolds is more than an idle pastime; it is a passion. Every village has walking paths branching out from the center, and we encountered people of every age along the trails. The number of elderly walkers pleasantly surprised us: with a cane to steady themselves, they were off on a four-to-seven mile walk. What a wonderful way to stay active. We often packed picnic lunches which we ate while leaning over fences and admiring the sheep, cattle, and pheasants roaming about. Everyone we met along the trails had a friendly greeting.
Our first full day in the Cotswolds ended with a wonderful dinner at a pub in Chipping Campden, with families all around us. We also enjoyed shopping at the Tuesday open street market in Moreton-in-Marsh (sort of an outdoor Wal-Mart that's only open one day a week); having tea in the old mill near Arlington Row in Bibury; walking across Sir James Barrie's (author of "Peter Pan") cricket field outside the village of Stanway; and a visit to the village of Tetbury near Highgrove, where Charles, the Prince of Wales, has his private estate.
Everyone with whom we talked suggested that we should visit the village of Castle Combe, located on the extreme southern edge of the Cotswolds. Setting off for that destination toward the end of our week, we planned on spending only about an hour and then going on to film in the city of Bath. The village, nestled in a valley which time seems to have forgotten, was pure magic - it had been the setting of several movies shot there (the original Doctor Dolittle and the soon to be released, "Stardust.")
We ended up spending most of the day in Castle Combe, where we were invited into two private homes. The first invitation occurred while Wayne was photographing a beautiful old door to a lovely small stone cottage. Wayne had just taken the picture when the door opened and he found himself two feet away from the cottage's owner. He apologized and then complimented her on the beautiful door when, to our surprise, she said, "Would you like to come in and see the cottage?" Pat, the owner, spent the next 45 minutes giving us a delightful tour of her lovely historic cottage built in 1662 - she even introduced us to the two resident horseshoe bats in her garden shed. After leaving Pat's cottage and venturing up the hill, we next met Mac, the resident village historian, who invited us into his cottage and gave us a running commentary on the village, both past and present. The memories of our visit to Castle Combe are so magical I fear that, like Brigadoon, the village may not be there when we return.
After a week, we realized that we had just barely scratched the surface of the Cotswolds but it was time to travel to our next shooting location, Paris. We definitely plan to go back to the Cotswolds soon. And perhaps, if we are in luck, as we are photographing a doorway, the door will open and we will meet a new friend along our journey.
Since then there have been more shooting trips: to Maine, Florida, California, Egypt, Ireland, and Scotland, along with the introduction of a new series of Virtual Experience DVDs designed for Joggers and Bicyclists.
I have not discussed the expense, frustrations, and back-breaking work involved in filming these Virtual Experience DVDs in various locations around the world, but they exist. And, as air travel becomes more taxing, and security concerns more stringent, new problems continue to mount. But we are committed to aggressively expanding our Virtual Experience DVD catalog and will do whatever it takes to continue to film them, not only in Europe, but all over the world. Besides, our customers love these DVDs and ask for more!
April 9, 2008 by Kathi Jacobs - Egypt - just the word conjures up images of Pharaohs, Pyramids, and an amazing culture thousands of years old. And like many tourists, Wayne and I went to Egypt to see its antiquities, but little did we know that we would return with memories of something even more valuable, the kind and gentle Egyptian people.
Without a doubt, this was our most difficult shooting trip - ever. To begin, there is the 10 hour plane ride from New York to Cairo. Added to that, for the first time in our company's history, Wayne and I will be part of an organized tour group. In the past, we've always traveled independently, making our own reservations, staying as long as we wanted in a location, controlling our schedule. But this time, we would have to attempt to shoot our video according to a tour guide's schedule. We didn't think it would be easy, and it wasn't.
We didn't think we could manage Egypt on our own and that turned out to be a wise decision. The language problem alone was a large part of the decision. I had spent months with a book teaching myself Arabic but as soon as we arrived in Cairo, I quickly discovered that attempting to learn Arabic from a book was futile - no one understood me.
Landing in Cairo, we met our guide and other members of our tour group and set off for our hotel in Cairo. After an orientation meeting, we settled in and attempted to reset our biological clocks to Cairo time.
We spent one week in Cairo followed by another week cruising the Nile. Highlights included viewing the mummy of Rameses in the Egyptian Museum, a hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings at sunrise, a nighttime carriage ride in Luxor, and meeting and talking with so many gentle Egyptian people during our visit. Nowhere in today's world is an American made to feel as welcome as in Egypt.
But our main goal was to film a one hour virtual walk in Egypt and we accomplished that! Actually we were able to film two separate virtual walks in Egypt and today are releasing "Egypt Virtual Walk - Volume 1."
In addition to the one hour Virtual Walk itself, we always include a Bonus Chapter on the DVD and we wanted this Bonus Chapter to be special. So we made arrangements with an authentic Arabic band, the Salaam Band, to supply the music that accompanies our Bonus Chapter, "Images of Cairo." We believe that "Images of Cairo" is one of our best featurettes.
Yes, the trip to Egypt was difficult, but would Wayne and I do it again? Absolutely! In fact, we hope to return to Egypt soon, and this time with our daughter, Sarah. We can't wait to share Egypt with her.
August 9, 2008 by Wayne Jacobs - Ireland is everything I expected it to be - and more! It's green alright, a shade of green I seldom see in the states. But one of the most surprising things I learned about Ireland was that their winters must not be as cold as I imagined because most of the deciduous plants appeared to have survived the winters and had been growing constantly for years. Certainly not the cycle of green plants dying back in the winter and re-sprouting each spring process with which I'm so familiar.
We planned our trip to Ireland for mid-May and that turned out to be a wonderful decision. Not only were the spring flowers. bushes and trees in full bloom, but the newly born lambs were everywhere. And that's another fact about Ireland which surprised me: there must be 10 sheep to every human inhabitant.
Once again Kathi had done her homework and rented a spacious new home south of city Galway. The owners lived in the US so we were able to pay them in US dollars which was an added bonus. Once we settled in, we shopped for groceries at the local market and noticed something ironic almost immediately. We recognized the numbers on the food products at the market, we'd see 3,98 on a box of cereal, for example. The only problem was that the number we "recognized" was in euros not dollars so the resulting cost to us was almost twice as much as we had typically paid in the states (at the time we were in Ireland, one euro was worth $1.60 in dollars).
Ireland surprised us in one other way: until recently their economy had been the strongest in Europe. That resulted in big, big new houses and big new cars - not at all what we had seen in other European countries. And attempting to drive those big cars on narrow roads designed for horse carts and small cars was, for me at least, challenging, especially since they drive on the left side of the road as they do in the UK.
But the scenery, charm, and unexpected delights of Ireland made up for the high prices and driving challenges. Driving to Connemara one morning to film one of our Virtual Jog - Bike Rides, we entered the outskirts of the small town of Clifden and began to see mile after mile of horse trailers parked along the roadway. "What's going on? I asked Kathi. "Something big," she replied. Soon we discovered that our trip to Connemara had accidently coincided with the famous Connemara Pony auction and we quickly parked and spent a delightful couple of hours watching these beautiful ponies being sold. We found ourselves in the middle of hundreds of serious - and I mean serious - horse lovers, and it was an experience I'm glad we didn't miss.
Kathi and I came away from Ireland conviced of one thing: we will return!
November 4, 2008 - Our newest Virtual Experience DVD is certainly one of our most beautiful! The views from the one-lane road that clings to the shore of Loch Etive, Scotland are nearly picture-perfect, framed by the spring flowers in full bloom. So it's an easy prediction that this Virtual Jog and Bike Ride DVD is destined to be one of our best sellers.
Kathi spends hours researching unique lodgings for our trips abroad and once again she booked an exquisite, scenic location. She chose the spectacular Blarcreen House Bed and Breakfast as our base for filming during our stay in the Scottish Highlands.
Landing in Edinburgh, we picked up our rental car and drove for three hours to the Scottish Highlands. I don't expect I'll ever become "comfortable" driving on the "left" side of the road - Kathi's role is to constantly remind me to "Stay on the left - stay on the left." Upon our arrival to Blarcreen House, our hosts met us and made Kathi and me feel welcome in their stately Victorian mansion. In the ensuing days, two things became clear: our hosts genuinely enjoyed their interaction with their guests and did everything in their power to make our stay enjoyable. If you ever travel to the Oban, Scotland area, we highly recommend Blarcreen House.
The port of Oban is an interesting little resort town known as "The Gateway to the Isles." We found several wonderful restaurants here and returned several times for late dinners. In between times, I had to sample the local Fish and Chips - which I found to be delicious! Oban confirmed something that, in our opinion, was a disturbing trend; in many of the Scottish cities we visited, large old stone churches had been deconsecrated and converted to tourist info centers or other purposes. We wondered why the church appeared to be losing members?
We set aside one day to travel northward to the small village of Glencoe. This little settlement, the site of the infamous Massacre of Glencoe was an important chapter in Scotland's history and crucial to my mother's ancestors. So it was absolutely necessary that I visit this historic site, the land where my mother's ancestors had once lived.
I was familiar with the basic facts of the Massacre: that on the 13th of February in 1692, the King's soldiers, after accepting the hospitality of the MacDonald family for several weeks, arose early in the morning and began simultaneously killing all MacDonalds in three settlements along the glen — Invercoe, Inverrigan, and Achacon — although the killing took place all over the glen as fleeing MacDonalds were pursued. Thirty-eight MacDonalds from the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by the guests who had accepted their hospitality, on the grounds that the MacDonalds had not been prompt in pledging allegiance to the new monarchs, William of Orange and his wife Mary II. Another forty women and children died of exposure after their homes were burned, although some did escape to the cold Highlands. It is a sad chapter in Scottish history.
Can you imagine the sense of history that enveloped me as I stood there in that idyllic village?
To read more about our world travels to film Virtual Experience Scenery Videos, click here.