Mark Twain wrote a series of travel letters whilst on a tour of Europe and the Middle East in 1867 with a group of American pilgrimsA. These letters later formed the basis of The Innocents Abroad. Journeying from New York to Egypt via France, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Russia, Turkey and the Holy Land, he observed and lampooned his companions with typically caustic and incisive commentary. The local people he encountered fared little better. In frequently humorous, sometimes grotesque detail, Twain records the day-to-day ups and downs of discovering the truth about people and places, while pillorying those tourists who rely on guidebooks rather than their own impressions to define their experiences.