Press release of 28 November 2022
Run Rome The Marathon, Rome awaits you. Run and live it
Over 30 monuments and historical and cultural sites in the 42 km of Run Rome The Marathon. Only in Rome does a marathon take runners back in time to over 2500 years ago.
ROME – Run Rome, visit Rome, enjoy Rome. Conquer Rome next 19 march 2023, there will be the biggest marathon in Italy and one of the most famous in the world.
“Run Rome The Marathon is not only a sporting event but an opportunity for many runners and their families to visit the most beautiful city in the world. Sports tourism is an increasingly important trend, and we organisers must encourage our runners to reconcile their desire to travel and learn with their passion for sport” comment made by Stefano Deantoni, Marketing Director of Infront Italy.
Running a marathon is certainly a thrill; running through history and leaving your mark is even more exciting. There is no route in the world that can tell the story of a city like that of Rome, a journey through time to be savoured step by step. Run Rome The Marathon on 19 march 2023 is an opportunity to learn about the glories and misfortunes of an empire that changed the history of the world, a pleasant distraction that will help runners feel less fatigue and experience heightened emotions.
You will pass more than 30 monuments and historical and cultural sites, the only marathon in the world to boast such a rich heritage. It’s not only marathon runners who will enjoy such a spectacle, but, of course, also the participants of the Run4Rome solidarity relay. Changeover zones in Viale Ostiense (7 km), Viale Giulio Cesare (20 km), Viale Maresciallo Pilsudski (30 km) and then four stages of 7.7 km, 13.3 km, 10.3 km and the last, the grand finale, 11.595 km. In Rome there is also a Fun Run 5km for all families, children and carers.
To tell us about Rome is Dr Isabella Calidonna, art historian but also FIDAL technician, Coni physical trainer and founder of ArcheoRunning.
START/3 KM – Km 0 is at Via dei Fori Imperiali, due to the presence of the Forums, a grandiose political-administrative, judicial and monumental centre in Roman times teeming with citizens. The area was urbanised in the Middle Ages and still tells the ancient history of Rome at a depth of 10 metres. One immediately faces the Altar of the Fatherland, whose decorations symbolise strength, law, action, sacrifice, thought and harmony. On the left is the Insula dell’Ara Coeli, located at the foot of the Aracoeli steps on Via del Teatro di Marcello, a four-storey building remodelled with the construction of a church dedicated to Saint Rita. Your attention is immediately captured by the Campidoglio (the Capitoline Hill), a building in which the most famous episodes of Roman history are concentrated, followed by the Theatre of Marcellus, the only ancient theatre left in Rome, which was used as a model to build the Colosseum. All this can be seen from the start in the first kilometre, where the Temple of Portunus and the Temple of Hercules Victor, the site of Rome’s first market, can be seen. Across Via dei Cerchi, you can admire the majesty of the Circus Maximus, the place where chariots were raced in Roman times, 600 metres long, 140 metres wide and with a capacity of around 250,000 spectators, mind-boggling numbers for another of the city’s symbols! You arrive at the third kilometre, where you can see the majestic Pyramid of Cestius, later incorporated into the Aurelian Walls, of which it became a bastion.
LUNGOTEVERE 4/15 KM – Runs along roads bordering the river, the result of post-unification construction of the city walls, built to defend the city from the countless disastrous floods that had devastated the city in previous centuries. The Lungotevere Aventino, where Remus and Romulus were picked up by the waters of the Tiber River, the Lungotevere de’ Cenci, located between the Tiber Island and the Capitoline Hill, and the Lungotevere dei Tebaldi will follow in succession. This is one of the most beautiful embankments in Rome, combining ancient architecture with the natural charm of the Janiculum hill in front of it and the charm of the plane trees, in a sort of continuity between the modern embankment and Via Giulia.
16 KM/MARATHON HALFWAY POINT – At the 16th kilometre, you come to Via della Conciliazione (Road of Reconciliation), created by the ‘fascist pickaxe‘ and so named to commemorate the Lateran Pacts. On the right, running parallel throughout the route, is the ‘corridor‘, the Passetto di Borgo, built to connect the Apostolic Palace with Castel Sant’Angelo, an escape route for Popes under attack. You continue towards the Colonnade and St Peter’s Basilica, an adrenaline rush with its majestic beauty, and reach the halfway point of the marathon at Ponte Cavour, built to connect Campo Marzio and the Prati district.
21/30 KM – You pass through the places that once belonged to the Olympic village, Piazzale dell’Acqua Acetosa, Via de Campi Sportivi, Viale dell’Agonistica, where Abebe Bikila, at the foot of the Arch of Constantine, wrote a new chapter of the marathon… barefoot! From here, head north to Rome and Italy’s largest prayer centre, the Mosque of Rome, which can accommodate up to 12,000 worshippers.
30 KM/FINISH LINE – And here it is! Via del Corso! The city’s most famous street owes its name to the famous Roman carnival races with Berber horses, which were forced to run with balls of pitch hitting their backs. Their race was, unfortunately, brought to a halt by a kind of wall made of a suspended cloth, where the poor animals very often collided and lost their lives. The street is part of the Roman Tridente, the apex of which is Piazza del Popolo, characterised by a magnificent obelisk and twin churches that were supposed to be perfectly symmetrical but are not. Until the mid-nineteenth century, this was the site of hangings. Proceed to Piazza di Spagna, immortalised in Roman Holiday, which launched the myth of the Eternal City, one of the places to which the myth of Rome is most linked. Famous for its Spanish Steps composed of 136 steps, at the foot of which is the Barcaccia fountain. On the right of the steps is the ‘Casina Rossa‘ which also hosted the poet John Keats.
Through Piazza di Tor Sanguigna you will enter Piazza Navona, the ‘good’ living room of the city, one of the most famous squares in Rome for its typically baroque style, which has always been considered one of the most historically ‘cheerful’ places in the capital. Originally home to the Stadium of Domitian, which is about 10 m below the current street level, the face of the square only took shape in the Middle Ages, around the 15th century, when a market began to be held and became historic. After several urban arrangements, Palazzo Pamphilj was built, now home to the Brazilian Embassy, then the Fountain of the four rivers and the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone in Borromini.
42 KM – Reaching Largo di Torre Argentina, on the right is the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina, also known for the colony of cats housed on the site of Julius Caesar’s murder. Right in the centre of the Roman Forum are the ruins of the Temple of Caesar, built by Augustus. You pass Piazza Venezia and Via dei Fori Imperiali again to cross the finish line at the foot of the Colosseum, the symbol of Rome that has stood watch for over two thousand years, a witness to all the changes in the city, overcoming almost unscathed two thousand years of history and stories, years that you have travelled through century after century in your stratospheric race!
ISCRIZIONI – Registrations are open – https://www.runromethemarathon.com/en/home-en/
Run Rome The Marathon
Press Office
stampa@www.runromethemarathon.com
Cesare Monetti – T. +39.380.3114270