Running an Ultra Marathon in the rolling hills of Tuscany…..a dream! And what better place than the Val d’Orcia to provide the backdrop, with its landscapes that are never the same, seemingly gentle but deceptive for muscles and legs.
The roads that cross it are the great roads that, in Roman times, joined Rome to the other side of the Alps, the Romea, the Cassia, the Francigena, travelled by Sigeric Archbishop of Canterbury and many illustrious wayfarers, warriors, saints and brigands; witness the fortifications, castles and medieval parish churches still present in the territory.
At the foot of the Amiata, the highest extinct volcano in Italy, flows the Orcia river, apparently a rivulet, but capable of making its force felt if the rains are abundant; the valley is a succession of gentle hills whose vegetation and colours vary according to the season, the sterile colours of the clays of the biancane, the golden tuffs and the fortresses that inspired artists such as the Sienese painters of the Renaissance.
A land of wind and desert that can arouse not only harmonious harmony, but also anxiety and loneliness, but never indifference. If you pause here, you will think “I have already been to this place”, you may have seen it in the many films shot or in commercials or in millions of other images or even in a previous life, but being there will surprise you, you will be inside the long dream.
This is the Val d’Orcia, a land where agriculture has not yet surrendered to progress and still offers the whole world delicious flavours such as the famous wines that deserve aristocratic appellations like the “RE” Brunello and the “NOBILE” Montepulciano and the rising star Orcia Rosso, unique cheeses such as the pecorino di Pienza and that “poor” cuisine that gave rise to the Mediterranean diet, and … the people, the population, who continue to welcome travellers and make them part of a sincere conviviality.
In designing the route, the organisers have thought of the journey of the wayfarers and pilgrims who have walked through this land for centuries; because running here, in these lands, will be like being one of them “wayfarers of times gone by”, a daydream.
You will pass through medieval villages rich in history, art and culture in a UNESCO World Heritage Park since 2004.
