It’s early on a Tuesday morning in mid-March, and Isabella Calidonna is ready to run. She’s got a hydration pack wrapped around her back and a smile on her face while standing next to the Baroque Four Rivers Fountain in the heart of Rome, Italy. This centerpiece of the famed Navona Piazza, she tells me, is among more than 2,000 fountains in the city designed by the masterful Italian sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini more than 400 years ago.
Calidonna is the founder of ArcheoRunning, a Rome-based running tour company, and she’s leading me on an easy 5-kilometer run that will zigzag through the city’s maze-like alleys. They’re paved with black basalt, referred to as sampietrini in Italian.
The iconic cobblestones date back to the 16th century, when they were first used to cover Saint Peter’s Square in front of Saint Peter’s Basilica, the iconic Italian High Renaissance church in Vatican City. These are the kind of details that Calidonna, who has a Ph.D. in art history and also studied archeology, easily shares mid-stride.
“I work in great beauty,” she says, chuckling. “Rome is very special—full of beauty that has been layered over centuries, from the medieval period to the Renaissance. You can see all that history here.”
Save for local shop owners preparing to open, at 7 A.M. Rome is unusually hushed and absent of tourists, an ideal moment to run through Italy’s most populous city of nearly three million.
“It’s a very particular experience,” Calidonna says of Rome’s pre-breakfast hour ambiance.
From the honeyed rays of sunlight that drench the city’s historic facades, to the quiet and crowdless streets, Calidonna describes this interval of the day as sacred and magical, insisting that it’s worth a wake-up call to encounter this tamer face of the city.
A Run-Tour of the Best of Rome
Calidonna, a six-time marathon finisher, no longer trains to race long distances. But she remains an avid runner. She started coaching in 2016 and logs roughly 20 miles per week as the owner of ArcheoRunning, which she founded in 2019. After constantly encountering tourists studying maps mid-run, Calidonna thought it was a prime opportunity to offer a guided running experience while also bridging her love for art, history, and archeology in her beloved adopted home.
“My running tours are for everyone,” Calidonna says. She adds that she accommodates all paces for the 13 running tours she offers. The company also features seven walking tours.
“I don’t use maps. I am the map!” -Isabella Calidonna, founder of ArcheoRunning
“The Best of Rome” tour is among her most popular. As part of the experience, she brings runners to iconic public squares and famed spots, like the Spanish Steps—the longest and widest staircase in Europe built in the 1720s. The tour also traverses architectural masterpieces, like the Pantheon. The ancient temple, dedicated to the 12 gods of the Roman religion, is one of the best-preserved Roman monuments in the world. A visit to the renowned Baroque Trevi Fountain—dubbed the world’s wishing well, attracting between 10,000 and 12,000 tourists daily—is another highlight of the rendezvous.
One of ArcheoRunning’s more atypical experiences includes taking runners southeast to the city’s “green lungs” to log miles on one of the oldest Roman consular roads. Calidonna describes the area as an open-air museum, where six of the ancient Roman aqueducts—used to transport fresh water for baths, fountains, and drinking to highly populated areas—are preserved. Dating back to 312 B.C.E. and built over a period of roughly 500 years, the Roman aqueduct systems are widely considered to be a masterful and advanced display of engineering.
Beat the Crowds Off the Beaten Path
On this Tuesday morning, I joined Calidonna for ArcheoRunning’s “Hidden Rome” running tour to visit a few of the lesser-known spots in the city. Our first stopping point is the ruins of the Stadium of Domitian, which is located beneath Piazza Navona. A rendered image of the stadium illustrates a horseshoe-shaped arena, which was formerly used for wrestling, foot races, and pentathlons. The space could accommodate 30,000 spectators (still significantly smaller than the better-known Colosseum, which could hold up to 80,000 people, while the Circus Maximus, the largest chariot stadium in ancient Rome, could fill more than 150,000).
I follow Calidonna to Via Coronari, an ancient Roman road in the heart of the city. Formerly referred to as Via Recta, the street was used by pilgrims on the journey to Saint Peter’s Basilica, she explains. These days, it’s full of renovated apartments sandwiched between art galleries and is also a place to hunt for antiques.
As we head to the Ponte district, Calidonna pauses and points at an inconspicuous arcaded lane, Vicolo San Trifone. This, she says, is one of the most distinct streets in the city—the narrowest in Rome, a fact that is often lost on tourists and locals alike. We move on to one of Rome’s oldest markets, Campo de’ Fiori, careful to steer clear of vendors meticulously arranging baskets of fruits and vegetables and buckets of fresh flowers. After we quickly pass by, we continue to a medieval courtyard of Ivy-wrapped ochre houses located through Arco degli Acetari. In the past, the area was used by vinegar makers before it was transformed into accommodations.
As we continue still off the beaten tourist track, Calidonna shepherds me to Passetto del Biscione, a tunnel with a stunning blue frescoed ceiling of cherubs and festoons. In 1796, the passage was reportedly the site of a miracle: an image of the Virgin Mary was allegedly seen moving her eyes, attracting pious Christians from around the city. The passage also served as a corridor to the Theater of Pompey, Rome’s first theater that was dedicated to Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar’s rival.
By the time we reach our second-to-last stop, I can’t help but gaze in awe inside the courtyard of the Palazzo della Sapienza. Here, Calidonna shows me the oldest university in Rome, and the largest in Europe, founded in the 13th century by Pope Boniface VIII. The building, designed by 17th-century architectural genius Francesco Borromini, is a Baroque masterpiece.
As we wrap up the run, Calidonna leads me to the back of the Pantheon. It’s certainly not a hidden gem. Rather, it’s one of the most popular architecture sites in the center of Rome—and the world. This, however, leads to our final stop, the ruins of the Baths of Agrippa. It’s the formerly private bath complex of Agrippa, the Roman general and son-in-law of Augustus, the first emperor of ancient Rome.
I’m still absorbing Calidonna’s granular details as we finish running and arrive at Caffè Sant Eustachio, the oldest coffee roasting company in Rome. The cafe uses water from an ancient aqueduct to make its coffee, like the Americano I sip as I gaze outside, noticing how much Rome has come to life, and it’s only 8 A.M.
A morning with ArcheoRunning feels like stepping into another world, one that serves as an amuse-bouche of the city’s culture, history, and traditions. I’m already ruminating on my return to the Eternal City.
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This article was first published by RUN.
