On a sunny, early Saturday morning it’s just after 7 a.m. SeptemberIsa Calidonna, my guide ArcheoRunning, as Rome’s sleepy sampietrini roads begin to awaken. Our pace fluctuates with the terrain before we abruptly stop at a street corner.
“See here.” Calidonna pointed upwards and guided my eyes to a window on the first floor, where an oval mosaic depicted the Virgin Mary cradling the swaddled Jesus. “This Madonnelle is hidden in plain site in RomeShe says. “Once they know you are there, they will be everywhere.”
This is why I love taking photos. guided tours It’s important to notice the little details and contextual information that can be easily missed when visiting a city. This morning I decided to try something different instead of my usual walking tour. After 20 minutes of my first running tour, I can’t believe that I have never done it before.
We run past a near-empty Trevi Fountain, its ornate travertine carvings bathed in buttery morning light, and greet café owners with a friendly “ciao!” They unfold the white tables, chairs and other furniture to prepare for morning rush. The city I saw yesterday is a completely different one. Its weight and history are palpable in the early morning silence.
Calidonna has a PhD in Art History and is a licensed guide, a running coach, an archaeologist, and a PhD. She founded her own company. ArcheoRunningShe combines all of her hats in private tours to give travelers a fresh perspective on her city. She says, “I have found that people enjoy going for a morning jog while traveling, especially when they are trying shake off jet-lag.” It is a great way to learn about a new city and get your bearings.
After following her down a quiet, side street at a good pace, she tells me that I should prepare myself for the view ahead. The Pantheon is looming ahead as we round the corner and enter an eerily silent Piazza della Rotonda. In the days to come, I will be walking this street many, many times. I will dodge large tour groups, gathered around flag-bearing guides, and struggle to hear above the noise. In those moments, I will think back to the awe of this morning—with just Calidonna, me, and a spattering of other early risers as she tells me the wondrous history of this mighty temple.
Calidonna tells us, “I’d like to show you something,” as she takes us up to the entrance of the Pantheon and its massive, double bronze doors that are still closed. “These doors are almost 2,000-years old. Imagine all the people that have passed through these doors.
This morning, we take a few moments to reflect before continuing on our journey to find more Rome’s hidden temples. This special tour was designed to coincide this year with Rome’s Jubilee, and highlights the city’s Madonnelle. These small shrines on street corners, which once numbered in the thousands before streetlights were introduced to the city, used candles for illumination. Around 500 of these street-corner shrines remain today, each one telling a unique story about faith, art and Roman tradition.
ArcheoRunning offers a variety of tours. You can choose from a variety of tours, including the classic Colosseum tour or the best of Rome. Emily in Paris–themed tour, if that’s more your thing. Each tour is around three-miles long, and there are plenty of stops on the way.
The tours can be modified to accommodate power walking. The goal is to move your body, discover more than you would on a typical walking tour and cover some extra ground. Calidonna’s experience as a running teacher helps her to pace the run and adjust it for the city’s hills. Even though it is not strenuous to a beginner runner, I feel that it has been a success.
I am at my hotel breakfast buffet well before nine o’clock in the morning, eager to refuel, and with that slight smugness runners often display. Today, I am embracing that feeling. It’s even more powerful when you have the sensation that Rome’s most iconic landmarks are all yours.
Run tours with high ratings
