Running in Rome

Last Sunday, as described in the workouts post, I had a long slow run, about 3 hours. When I run so much and slow (and for me it really means slow), I almost always  go downtown , looking around, time passes more quickly and I don’t feel tired (this is not correct, indeed at the end I feel tired, but I'm almost back home! ) .

I'd like to share what I experienced:

Wake up at 6 a.m. (I hear a chorus: "even on Sunday”! Eh, even on Sunday, because later I’d like to have time for my family ... I don’t want be short of anything!)
Sparing breakfast: tea, 4 little pieces of bread and jam. Completion of due formalities, dressing, today everything quietly and at 7 a.m. I’m on road.

It 'a wonderful day, warm sunshine and not even a cloud. The sun has already risen a bit over the horizon, I'm in a good mood. Just little heating and I am already at the “aqueducts ‘park “, one of the most beautiful places in Rome. The pace will be easy, I'll rarely look at the clock but much more around.

A few miles and I’m already at the Appia Antica, the queen of roads for ancient romans, and I will stay there for 4 miles. I am alone, Rome still sleeps and the Appia Antica today is mine. Heading towards the center, the funerary monuments of ancient Rome say hello to me. Oh yes, because now I even use to speak to some of the statues around!

I move on Cecilia Metella , the most impressive of the tombs, San Callisto  catacombs, which are still closed, otherwise I would have passed through (not under, eh!), in one of the lesser-known place for non -runners.

I pass next to the Quo Vadis and finally I cross the Aurelian walls through the beautiful Porta San Sebastiano. From here to Caracalla the road is always in shadow (even in summer), between two high walls protecting the most beautiful houses of Rome. Do not miss it when you come to run in Rome.

Caracalla now, I run through the “cookie”, a place where many Romans train every day, including on Sundays. So far I have only met a couple of runners, the “cookie” instead is full of colorful t-shirts and shorts. Someone does interval training! Boh!

Now I enter in the real city center. Circus Maximus, so sunny, Santa Maria in Cosmedin, with the “mouth of truth”. I go over the Tiber (Rome river), crossing the Tiber Island and decide going down on the river bank. Sometime I go to St. Peter, but today I go down because a few days ago I saw the best foreign language Oscar winner "The Great Beauty ", whose final scene, the closing credits one, is shot from a boat on the Tiber, starting exactly from the Tiber Island. I can see live the same things: bridges completely different from below, scows, which are still there, the seagulls and the river still swollen and partially invading the banks. The atmosphere becomes magical when suddenly after a sharp bend of the river Castel Sant'Angelo appears to me, just like in the movie.

At the level of Ara Pacis I have to go up because the bank is still under water. I realize that hour and a half has just passed, practically it flew, and I think I have to go back. I still stay a little over the Tiber, then I cross back the river and enter in Piazza del Popolo, and for 150 feet I run exactly along the shadow of the Egyptian obelisk. Here I could choose between Via del Babuino toward Piazza di Spagna, Via di Ripetta to the Campus Martius or Via del Corso. 

I choose the last one, nearly a mile between the shops towards Piazza Venezia. Meanwhile Rome woke up and Via del Corso is already full of tourists, as well as many runners.

Running, I look at still closed shops, at Trinità dei Monti and Via Frattina and I’m already in front of the Vittoriano. Every time the view of the military guard at the Unknown Soldier touches me a bit, but I does not last long because I already in Via dei Fori Imperiali, now partly occupied by a cycling event .

In the end I see the Coliseum and I think I will pass here within two Sundays to close the Rome Marathon ... and the thrill invades me! I always suffer Via dei Fori, I begin to think that it is a bit on a slight slope. 

The Coliseum is as always full of tourists, especially Japanese. I find it hard to get through, a look at the Arch of Constantine and I already run next to Palatine to close the loop at Caracalla. I do again the “cookie” and I take back the Appia Antica until the Quo Vadis. Here, I enter into the Caffarella park, so beautiful: Roman countryside left in the original way. Inside there are also little known beautiful monuments, such as the nymph of Annia Regilla. Now I'm tired, I've already passed the 30ty km, I reach the park with the Claudio and Felice aqueducts and in a moment I’m back home. LAP. Tired, even though I went slowly, but with my eyes full of the “great beauty ".