Read the novel and fancy following in the footsteps of the author? Reading groups are gathering well-thumbed texts under their arms and jetting off to Tuscany or Venice to follow in the footsteps of their favourite novelists.

Reading groups are the fastest-growing club activity in Britain. And participants are no longer content to simply get together and discuss novels or watch a film adaptation - they increasingly want to visit the destinations that inspired their favourite writers.

Louise Symington, co-founder of Penguin's internet Readers' Group Foundation, said: 'By visiting the source of the magic or horror of the place that inspired the author, readers are getting a much more profound understanding of the text.'

'Reading groups are becoming increasingly active in the way they read,' said Surrey University's Jenny Hartley, who last year published Reading Groups, the first study of the phenomenon. 'When these groups were still a new notion, it was simply enough for members to get together and discuss the text but they have become more inquiring and more confident.'

And the numbers are growing. Nearly 70 per cent of reading groups have been set up in the past five years. Most of the 50,000 members are female.

One of the most popular destinations this year is Venice - the setting for Salley Vickers's Miss Garnet's Angel, a current staple of reading lists throughout the country. Italy, particularly Tuscany, is also a firm favourite. E.M. Forster's A Room with a View, Annie Hawes's Extra Virgin and Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun are also inspiring reading groups to jump on the plane.

Specialist tour operators such as Bologna-based Reading Retreats in Rural Italy are also reporting a growing demand from reading groups. Villa specialist Invitation to Tuscany sends two or three groups a year to Florence and the Bay of Poets (where Byron and Keats had houses) on the Ligurian coast.

Catherine Heatherington's reading group in Kentish Town, north London, is planning a visit to Venice to trace the footsteps of Miss Garnet. 'Having read the book, I want to experience the place, the art and the buildings that evoked such a powerful response from the author.'

Dinah Mason travelled from Somerset to track down what she believed to be the precise paving stone on which Lucy Honeychurch saw a small child slip during a visit to the Santa Croce in Florence in A Room with a View: 'When I saw that stone for myself, it was a profound and slightly eery experience,' she said.

'I felt like I'd found a little window through which I could know the author, thereby sharing his experience in a more intimate way than by simply reading his words,' she added. 'I felt like I'd found the source of his inspiration.'

However, some travellers may find the whole experience a complete anti-climax. Charmian Dyson from Cornwall tracked down the church in Venice in which Miss Garnet has her epiphany. 'We were so delighted to find the church but bitterly disappointed when we went in, and found it all being renovated with everything either closed or covered up,' she said.

'In a bit of a sad state, we crossed over the square to a cafe, only to find another reading group already there, having done exactly the same as us with the same results. It took the edge off the adventure a little bit.'

More information

Reading Retreats in Rural Italy (00 39 051 692 9587)

Invitation to Tuscany (0121 429 5016)