Marathons in Italy

Marathons and Italy are a great love story ❤️. Only fitting for the most romantic country in the world! If you’re up for a 42 km in Italy, you’ve picked a great destination ✈️. Come on, a little history never hurts: one of the very first appeared in 1960, during the Olympic Games Marathon in Rome. For this first edition, Ethiopian Abebe Bikila won the gold medal by improving the world record: 2 h 15 min and 16s 🥇. That’s already an incredible performance—but imagine that he ran the race… barefoot ! 🦶Ahhh, that could well be your next challenge, right? 

After that feat, the capital didn’t host another marathon until 1982, the year of the 1st edition of the Rome Marathon ✨. Today, marathoners still have this race on their season “to-do list”! Coming from all over the world, the city of the 7 hills knows how to draw people in to run and party 🥳. Then the years rolled on, and in 1984 came the creation of the Florence Marathon, in Tuscany! In this region, you can also take a detour to see the “Leaning Tower” during the Pisa Marathon! 📍

Since lots of people like to chase their "PB" when they’ve got a bib pinned on, we’ve got a great recommendation. The Milan Marathon—between the beauty of the city and the flat, fast course—is quite simply the fastest 42.195 km in the country ⚡️. The records? Both date back to 2021: for women, it’s held by Ethiopian Hiwot Gebrekidan in 2h19'35", and for men it’s Kenyan Titus Ekiru in 2h02'57" ⏱️. The numbers are on the table—now all that’s left is to go for it!

Leaving Lombardy and Milan, we head to the “Most Serene”! Venice, “the Queen of the Adriatic”, the city of love and gondolas. You’re bound to fall in love with the sumptuous city architecture, dating back to the Italian Renaissance 🏛️. And instead of coming on vacation to stroll through the streets, you might as well come for the Venice Marathon, at the end of the year 📆. In Veneto, you can also line up for the Verona Marathon or Padua, which we promise will be super gentle 🫂.

We’ve already got a good list ready, but we did say it was a beautiful and great love story! 💌 Among the other dates to save, you can also run on an island with the Elba Island Marathon, go from city to city on the Lake Maggiore Marathon 🚣, or enjoy the seaside thanks to the Rimini Marathon, Palermo, or the Mytho Marathon (where there won’t be any room for tall tales 🤭). Or you can keep it easy and run an urban race by setting off on the Ravenna Marathon, Turin, or Bologna. Are you starting to see where the romantic story comes from between “the boot” and running? 🏃‍♂️

Once the feat is done, dolce vita will be waiting just for you 🌟. When it comes to historic monuments, you’ve got plenty to add to your list. Colosseum, Duomo di Milano, Trevi Fountain, Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore… You’re going to be blown away 🤩. You can also save some time for a getaway to a neighboring country. It’s intriguing and, above all, the smallest in the world. Of course, we mean the Vatican! 🇻🇦 And like any self-respecting runner, you’ll obviously need a good plate of artisan pasta to recover in the best way possible 🍝. Pasta Cacio e peppe, alla carbonara, all’Alfredo—all that’s left is to choose (which is definitely the hardest part) 🤣. 

“Running a 42 km? Why not.”

“In Italy? Ahhh, now YES!” 🇮🇹