Running on Vacation – Newby to Expert Traveler

I love running while traveling. I spend a ridiculous amount of my life running the same roads and bike paths near my house. Over and over again – and don’t even get me started on treadmills. Any time that I get an opportunity to run in different scenery, I will take it.

Florence, Italy is a pretty nice place to run if you get a chance. There aren’t a whole lot of choices of places to run when you’re in Florence, but the views are amazing nonetheless.

Limited Route Choices

The problem with running in Florence is that much of the town is covered by a ZTL or a limited traffic zone that doesn’t allow for cars other than residents, buses or taxis to drive within that zone. As a runner, that sounds great, right? The problem is that because of the ZTL all of the garbage trucks and delivery trucks run around Florence in the morning before the ZTL goes into effect and it can get a little busy. I like to run in the morning but I don’t want to dodge delivery trucks.

You could wait until the ZTL goes into effect, at 7:30, but then the amount of pedestrians increase dramatically and you might end up dodging pedestrians during your run. This might be okay if you want to run a low intensity run and maybe you want to see a lot of the beautiful sights of Florence. But if you want to run at a higher intensity, the option is really to run along the Arno River.

My Route

This route was a little over 4 miles with an elevation gain of 233 feet.

Our Airbnb was located south of the Firenze Santa Maria Novella train station and just a block off of the Arno river. This meant that all I had to do was take a right on the first street, and then jump on the sidewalk that runs parallel to the Arno River.

The elevation of this route was pretty much dead flat with the exception of the climb to Piazzale Michelangelo

It was before dawn in November, and the air was crisp with the temperatures in the mid 40s and very little wind. It was the kind of temperatures that is ideal for performance. My attention wasn’t on running a fast time, it was on the amazing views of Florence as it emerged from darkness.

Light reflects off of the Arno before dawn

Florence is beautifully illuminated by the lights along the Arno at night, with streetlights dancing on the ripples of the river. I continued my jog along the river heading toward the famous Ponte Vecchio. There were a few other joggers along the path. I was on the north side of the Arno heading east and the sidewalk was only a few feet wide, but the traffic was light which allowed passing in the street, when necessary.

Crossing at Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio lit up in the early morning

The previous day, I had experienced Ponte Vecchio in the afternoon with crowds of people shopping for jewelry. When I was there I noticed the shops had wooden protections for the shop windows. I was curious what the shops looked like with the wooden protections down and the crowds gone. I was not disappointed. It was truly interesting and in a way beautiful. At least as beautiful as theft protection could be.

Shops closed on Ponte Vecchio in the early morning

I crossed the Arno River at Ponte Vecchio and then continued east along the river, this time on the south side.

Looking east along the Arno River taken from sidewalk on south side of the river.

Piazzale Michelangelo

I timed my run out for one particular reason. I wanted to experience Piazzale Michelangelo at sunrise. Piazzale Michelangelo is a very popular place for people to visit at sunset, but going at sunrise allows for people to get a spectacular view of the city when very few people have even bothered to get up.

The problem was, that I missed my turn. I kept running along the path and missed the turn to go up to Piazzale Michelangelo. I ended up running probably about a half mile too far, before I realized that I needed to turn around and come back to the west. I finally took my turn off at Porto San Niccolo, a tower that marks the turn up to Piazzale Michelangelo.

There is a decent amount of elevation change from the path along the Arno up to the Piazzale, so I’m ashamed to admit, I walked a little. But I worked my way up the windy road until I reached the Piazzale Michelangelo and I was not disappointed.

The Piazzale Michelangelo is a large plaza that has unbeatable views of the city of Florence. It has spectacular views of the Duomo with the Tuscan hills in the background. Seeing the sun rising over the city is an amazing experience and it was worth every mile and every foot of elevation on the climb.

After relaxing a bit in the plaza and watching the sunrise, I worked my way back to the Airbnb, this time spending more time on the south side of the Arno. Seeing essentially the same sights, but this time illuminated by the sun, instead of illuminated by streetlights created a different appreciation for the beauty of Florence.

Suggestions for Routes

Based on the limited amount of running that I’ve done in Florence. I think running along the Arno might be your best bet. Running through town, you might find yourself dodging delivery trucks early in the morning or pedestrians later in the morning. If you’re not in a hurry that might not be a problem.

If you can work in a trip to Piazzale Michelangelo, you absolutely should. If you can do it at dawn or dusk, even better. There is just something magical about that location and you will not be disappointed.

The run around the marina in Cabo San Lucas is about a 5 kilometers trip if you do a full loop (up and back). It’s dead flat (ignore the elevation change on this Strava recording, my Garmin was having major problems with elevation). It’s also a great way to get a quick sense of what is going on around the major tourist area in Cabo San Lucas.

There are some huge private boats in the marina.

Typically, the marina isn’t very relaxing to walk through because there are tons of people trying to sell you boat tours. However, I found that no one bothers you when your jogging there, which is good to know if you just want to look around without having to say “No, Gracias” every 30 seconds.

The sea lions like to hang out in the marina

We were staying in an Airbnb above the Puerto Paraiso shopping mall on the north end of the marina. I started counterclockwise around the marina so the first part I ran through was past the mall and restaurant area. As I began to turn south, there is an absolutely huge construction area where they were tearing down what looked to be a very large hotel or condo complex. Hopefully someone will build something cool there.

Once I was past the construction area there were some shops and restaurants. This area is a less dense commercial area which meant my attention was being grabbed more by the sea lions diving for fish. There are quite a few sea lions that hang out in the marina, but I only saw them on the west side for some reason. Pretty quickly I reached the end of the marina and had to turn around because the marina ends, and so I had to turn back and run this area in reverse.

Once I did a full backtrack of west side of the marina, I was now running toward Medano Beach on the east side of the marina. This side is pretty much packed with bars, restaurants and shops. It makes it a fun part to hang out but if you start your run too late in the day, like I did, you’ll find yourself dodging a lot of people.

Once you reach the end of the marina, you arrive at Medano Beach. There is a turnaround with a tower which sits atop a rocky breakwater. Looking down the beach from there is a series of nightclubs that get pretty busy during the height of beach time and of course, at night.

I headed back to the Airbnb and ran a little extra so I could get to 4 miles. Running around the marina is very enjoyable, but I would suggest trying to get up fairly early for it. The longer you wait, the hotter and more congested the walkways get. There is a ton to look at between the boats, the sea lions and the shops and restaurants. It’s hard not to jog this area without finding something that you’ll want to wander over and check out (after a shower, obviously).

Tag: Running on Vacation

A Sunrise Jog in Florence