I am a huge fan of running tours while traveling. In fact, I’ve taken a run tour in Vancouver, San Francisco, New York, Tel Aviv, Chicago, Las Vegas, and now Florence. Why do I love signing up for run tours?
Running tours are, in my opinion, the best way to see a new city or even learn more about a city you love. Your run guide is more than a running partner but more of a tour guide. They often have some sort of expertise and lots of knowledge of the city to share with you. In addition, it is a lot safer to be with someone who knows the city.
Florence, Italy Run Tour
As soon as we booked our flights to Italy, I started looking for run tours to fit our itinerary. Well, maybe after I started planning all of my fabulous Italian food and gelato. I discovered that Go Running had a Florence tour and I began trading emails with the guide.
I wanted to make sure that my husband and I could have a private tour at the time that we wanted versus a group tour. For us, a private tour was important because my husband is a new runner and wanted to run at our own pace. We also wanted the flexibility of starting later than most group tours. Our guide, Lapo, was more than willing to meet our needs.
We met up with Lapo right outside of our hotel at 8:30 for our 8K run/walk. He mentioned that he was an architect by training and therefore had some really interesting perspectives on the many buildings and sights we ran by. Florence is one of those cities that every corner you turn presents another awe inspiring palace, church, statue, or museum.
Most of the signs in front of them are not translated into English, so you often have no idea what you are looking at. Another reason why having a running tour guide is essential and so much more meaningful. Florence was also thankfully way less crowded than Rome and a little cooler.
We ran by some of Florence’s most iconic spots over our 5 mile journey. You may recognize some of these:
Piazza Santa Maria Novella
Home of Carlo Lorenzioni (the author of Pinocchio)
Palazzo Medici- the first family headquarters of the powerful Florence family
Piazza Del Duomo
The Piazza della Republica (the former center of Roman Florence)
Piazza Signoria
The Uffizzi and Galileo museums
Dante stature
The replica of David
My personal favorite view-The Ponte Vecchio.
If you ever find yourself in Florence, give Lapo from Go! Running Tours a call. He is a fantastic guide! It’s the best way to spend a morning in Florence, Italy.
Thanks for helping to make the Runners’ Roundup a huge success by visiting all of the hosts: Me, Debbie, Jen, Lisa
What a fabulous tour! And so cool that your husband joined you. Really great photos of Florence, too.
I’ve never taken a running tour through a city, so this is a great reminder.
I truly think you would love it! I’ve enjoyed all of the run tours I have done
What a great way to see the city! Its nice that you were able to do a private tour at your time and pace.
That is the key for me! It was a really fun day
A very beautiful experience.
When I ran the Florence Marathon I booked an hotel at the beginning of Ponte Vecchio that was very close to the start of the race. The route was stunning.
What about to enter this marathon?
Our tour guide did the marathon and was telling us about it. I do not run full marathons but would love to do a race in Italy sometime
How incredible!!!!! Not only seeing all the fabulous sights, but having a guide with an architectural perspective would have me swooning 😉
It was really a fabulous experience all around
That sounds like a fabulous tour, and how cool that this time you husband was able to join you!
We had a lot of fun doing it together
Hi Deborah,
Great to read that you love running tours so much. Most of the running tours you are connected with the global independent Running Tour network called RunningTours.Net
Here you can find the running organisations you did in Tel Aviv and in the U.S. but also in the rest of the world. Check also our posts on our social media
I sure will next time we travel!