Races in Liguria

Look at Liguria on a map: a thin crescent, wedged between the sea and the mountains, never more than a few dozen kilometers wide. The result: you can swim in the morning and find yourself at 1,000 meters before noon. Genoa sits in the middle of the crescent, a former maritime republic that rivaled Venice, with Europe’s largest medieval historic center and alleys so narrow they’re called carruggi. Sanremo hosts every winter the Italian Song Festival, the one the whole country watches on TV. Savona keeps its port running between two beaches. La Spezia commands the Gulf of Poets, where Byron and Shelley used to hang out. And Imperia smells of olives from miles away 🇮🇹.

The coast splits in two and Italians never mix them up: the Ponente to the west toward France, the Levante to the east toward Tuscany. On the Levante, the Cinque Terre stack five colorful villages on cliffs, linked by trails carved into the rock and vineyard terraces held up by dry-stone walls — we’re talking 6,000 kilometers of walls, almost as much as the Great Wall 🍇. Right next door, the Portofino promontory drops into the water amid pine trees. Behind it, things rise fast: the Ligurian Alps meet the Apennines somewhere above Savona, and the trails run along the ridgeline with the sea below. The famous Sentiero Ligure, in fact, follows the whole region from one end to the other.

A big difference from the rest of Italy: here, winter doesn’t stop anything. The mountains block northern winds, the sea tempers what’s left, and Sanremo posts averages that many envy in January. That explains why the big events take place between November and April, when elsewhere people hibernate ❄️. In summer, on the other hand, the coast fills with vacationers and the heat turns sticky; it’s better to gain some altitude, where the air moves. One more thing to know: offshore, between Liguria, Corsica, and Provence, lies the Pelagos Sanctuary, a protected area where fin whales and sperm whales spend the summer. A local race is even named after them.

The race calendar in Liguria fully plays the sea-and-mountain card. The Sanremo Marathon is run in early December, largely on the former railway line turned into a bike path right along the waves. The Portofino Marathon follows in late January from Santa Margherita, with the Gulf of Tigullio the whole way. The SciaccheTrail crosses the five villages of the Cinque Terre in March, and its name comes from sciacchetrà, the straw wine produced on these terraces. The Trail di Portofino loops around the promontory in November. The Sanremo Trail & Ultra Trail heads into the hinterland in February, when MareMontana lives up to its name at the start in Loano. Add the Trail del Marchesato around Savona, the Trail delle Streghe in Spotorno, the Gran Trail Rensen above Arenzano, and the Trail 2 Aquile in the Apennines, and you’ll have plenty to keep you busy 🥾. On the road side, the Genoa Half Marathon winds through the port in April, the one in Savona falls in November, and the RunRivieraRun runs along the seafront from Finale Ligure. Triathletes have the Challenge Sanremo and the Pietra Ligure Triathlon, swimmers have Spotorno’s Swimtheisland, and cetacean defenders have the Run for the whales 🐋.

A race in Liguria ends in front of a green plate, because here everything revolves around basil. Pesto genovese is made in a mortar with the basil from Prà, a district of Genoa where it has always been grown in greenhouses, and it’s served on trofie or trenette. Recco focaccia hides a layer of fresh cheese between two thin sheets of dough — something to order before you even sit down 🫒. Chickpea farinata is eaten by the slice, piping hot. To go with it, a Vermentino from the hills or a glass of sciacchetrà (Alcohol abuse is dangerous for your health; consume in moderation). Among runners, the region claims Stefano Mei, born in La Spezia, European 10,000-meter champion in 1986, now head of the Italian athletics federation 🥇. As for the rest, Genoa gave us Christopher Columbus, Paganini and his impossible-to-follow violin, the architect Renzo Piano, and above all Fabrizio De André, whose songs about the alleys of the old port remain etched in the country’s memory 🎸. So, a marathon by the water or balcony trails above the Cinque Terre? Compare the local trails and half marathons—you can even come in the middle of winter 👟.