August featured events
 | Campania - The Stracittadina cittą di Airola is held in Airola, between Napoli and Benevento. Airola is a small town founded before 997 aD. The course is a flat 5k (repeat it twice to run the longer event) with views of the castle ruins. There is a goodie bag for all finishers, but can pay a nominal entry fee (1 euro) with no final prize. At the end of the race you can taste local food specialties. www.stracittadinadiairola.it |
 | Emilia Romagna - Ask any Italian, and they all will know Brescello, a small town in the Reggio Emilia province, hosting the Camminata di Peppone e don Camillo. The two characters to whom this fun run is dedicated are from a popular humorous book (and then movie) series written by Giovannino Guareschi. The popular stories center on the hot-tempered priest Don Camillo and his eternal rivalry with Giuseppe "Peppone" Bottazzi, the Communist mayor of a small town in post-World War II Italy, where everybody knows everybody. www.germanolanzi.altervista.org |
 | Friuli Venezia Giulia - Each year in August the local tourist office in Corgnolo, near Udine, welcomes runners to the Marcia del toro (Running of the bull). Nothing to do with the Pamplona one - in this case the bulls are not running after the participants but slowly cooked for more than twenty hours on a spit during the annual "sagra" (food festival). The running event features three distances - 21k, 12k, and a shorter 7k course. www.prolocodicorgnolo.it |
 | Lazio - The point-to-point Amatrice-Configno race is held in Amatrice, in the Lazio region. It is an 8.5k competitive event starting at 4 p.m. with prizes for the first 500 participants. The town of Amatrice is especially famous for the "sugo all'amatriciana" pasta sauce - according to popular tradition, numerous cooks of the Popes down the centuries came from Amatrice. www.amatriceconfigno.it |
 | Liguria - The Marcia mare e monti di San Lorenzo is held in Framura, at a short distance from the renown Cinque Terre. You can choose to run or walk either the 6k or the 12k course. The event starts from the San Lorenzo church. Featuring a coast of vertical rocks, holm-oaks, pinewoods and vineyards, old marble quarries, cliffs, and small pebbly beaches, Framura is also a few kilometers away from the quaint village of Portofino. www.framuraturismo.it |
 | Liguria - The Marcia del villeggiante is a fun run dedicated - as its name says - to those that are still vacationing in the small town of Sant'Olcese, in the Liguria region, a few miles north of Genoa. In addition to a nice 7k course, all participants will receive one delicious "salame di Sant'Olcese", the traditional pork and beef salami flavored with garlic and black pepper. www.podisticavalpolcevera.it |
 | Marche - The Frasassi caves are among the most visited natural curiosities in central Italy. Discovered by a group of Ancona speleologists in 1971, the caves are particularly rich with stalactites and stalagmites, and they include a number of named chambers, such as the "Cave of the Bats", the "Great Cave of the Wind", the "Ancona Abyss", the "Room of the Infinite", and the "Room of the Candles". The Trofeo Grotte Frasassi is a 12k run along the valley of the Sentino river, in the proximity of the caves. The run starts from San Vittore delle Chiuse di Genga, approximately one hour from Ancona in the Marche region. www.podavisfabriano.it |
 | Piemonte - If you like trail or skyrunning, do not miss the Scarfiotti/Sommeiller. It is a 7k point-to-point mountain race. The start is from the alpine shelter Scarfiotti, near the town of Bardonecchia, on the border with France. The finish is more than one kilometer uphill, on the top of the Sommeiller mountain near the glacier bearing the same name. After the race is over, runners will need to return by foot along the same route. www.sge20.com |
 | Sicilia - Dedicated to Pheidippides, said to have run from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of the military victory against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, the Maratona alla Filippide starts at 4:30 in the morning from Chiaramonte Gulfi, near Ragusa, in Sicily. Its peculiarity is that participants are not allowed to check watches, but have to run instead trusting their inner clocks like Philippides did in ancient times. As a bonus, at least for the Italians, the race ends in Punta Secca, in front of the house of the inspector Montalbano, the fictional detective protagonist of a popular Italian television series based on the novels of Andrea Camilleri. www.maratonadiragusa.com/la-filippide |
 | Trentino Alto Adige - The Raiffeisen 3/4 mezza maratona is held in Brunico, the largest town in the Puster Valley in the Italian province of South Tyrol. More than 80% of the population here speaks German, 15% Italian and the remaining use the minority language called Ladin. The race measures three-fourths of a half marathon, that is 17.6k. The start is at 5 in the afternoon. www.potato-run.com |
 | Veneto - The Camminata dell'uva ("Walk of the grapes") is held in the town of Sarcedo, near Vicenza. The event features several non competitive courses for runners of all levels - 7k, 11k, 15k, and 21k (half marathon) - on hilly roads winding through the local vineyards. Watermelons are usually served at the final refreshment place. www.gpilsorrisosarcedo.it |
 | Veneto - A fascinating fun run is held in the evening in Treschč Conca, in the province of Vicenza. The race La vaca mora, literally "the black cow" (this is how the local farmers nicknamed the steam locomotive), is a point-to-point 10k along the old local railroad. The course is entirely lit with torches. www.lavacamora.it |
 | Veneto - The Alpago sky super 3 is a point-to-point 18.8k trail run taking place in Lamosano, near Belluno, and finishing in Chies d'Alpago. The non-marked course features breath-taking views over the local Prealps, the foothills at the base of the European Alps, with a 1-mile positive elevation. www.dolomitiski-alp.com |
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