Corri La Vita - Running Against Cancer

In the beginning of September, after a welfare state related conference in Budapest, my Finnish colleagues run the Budapest half-marathon. I went to cheer on the runners and got immersed in the great sport atmosphere. DJ was playing samba and YMCA and excited runners ready to cross the city were shouting and cheering themselves as well. I wanted to be part of the group. Instead, while the thousands of runners left the park for their 20 km tour, I went to do my own tour in a nearby flee-market and had a beer in the fresh autumn air. I was obviously a second class tourist.

Feeling the adrenaline-filled atmosphere, I got inspired by the idea of running in such a mass happening myself, and when I saw the poster for Corri La Vita, 12km run in Florence to raise money for the fight against breast cancer, my opportunity had occurred. I went to sign up immediately to a closest sport shop. However, they had already closed the inscrizione and I left with two pairs of shorts instead making me even more motivated to run Corri La Vita.

The statue of Neptune in Piazza Signoria, the starting point of our run. All photos from here.

I have done jogging about five times this year so I felt I needed to do some emergency exercise to see if I was able to run 12km in the first place. So, I put on my new professional high-tech running shorts and a Harvard t-shirt that I was a bit embarrased to wear (yeah, no wonder some people think I'm Americana...). I run up to Piazzale Michelangelo and instead of doing my usual tour I continued up on the hill (beautiful!). It became dark and it started drizzling a bit, a car honked at me in the lonely street. I was almost sure that I had already got lost when I was suddenly back in Piazza Pitti. At home, quite dead but not dead, I checked out every runner's favourite web site Gmaps Pedometer and found out that I had run 11,3 km. I was ready for Corri La Vita.

Well, not quite. In Italy, you need a medical certificate proving you can do "agonistic sports" in order to participate in a running competition. I didn't have one so when I was signing-up (the second time, I managed to do it), I told that I wanted to do a non-competitive 12km run. Not possible (although their website said it was). I was only allowed to do a 5km passegiata. I don't know if I was disappointed or relieved. Sunday morning I still put my jogging stuff on (this time a Salvatore Ferragamo sponsored Corri La Vita t-shirt) and headed to Piazza Signoria. I asked two stuff members if I can run 12km fuori competizione; they didn't know. There was an announcement that I didn't understand but most probably it explained the organisational issues that I was desperately trying to figure out.


It was 9h35 when the shutgun finally announced the start of the competition. I was still trying to find out where I should start and if I was obliged to do the 5km family walk. I followed the masses of people and asked once again if I can run the longer distance. "Tutti lo fanno", replied the older man, so I was all set for the tour despite the poor (and excellent example of) Italian organisation.


It was great fun and running with 20 000 other people felt somehow very humble. We were all doing this insane agonistic sport and were connected by some weird solidarity. Those participating in the competition were far ahead of me and the people around me, so I mostly saw people taking it pretty easy, enjoying the sunny Sunday morning; rather smiling than grimacing out of agony. After a steep descent from Forte del Belvedere to San Niccolo we had to do a huge and equally steep ascent up to Piazzale Michelangelo (some grimaces were now visible). The best runners were already coming down from the hill when I started climbing up. 7km had passed and I wasn't the only one to walk up this hill (who ever thinks that Tuscan hills are charming should go jogging in this street).


My time was 1h10. The best woman arrived 30 minutes before me. But it didn't matter, I was glad to have made it, to have a discount coupon for La Perla lingerie and receive a Salvatore Ferragamo t-shirt (well, made in Haiti...). I'm actually thinking again of doing a half-marathon, though I liked the non-competitive character of Corri La Vita and the idea of collecting money for cancer rehabilitation (it collected 270 000 euros). Maybe I'll make it an annual tradition, a great excuse to come to Florence.

Paradoxal Florence

After a few hours of working on Sunday (and more hours spent on checking flight connections, comparing hotels, investing in social networking (which is just a fancier synonym for wasting time on internet), and reading news), I deserved a little Sunday passegiata aiming for a gelato. There was a 10-metre-long queue waiting for some good ice cream in one of my favourite gelaterias close to Duomo so I did a detour to a bookshop hoping that the gelato-hungry tourists would disappear in the meantime. I was already quite irritated by the tourist masses when I arrived at Piazza Duomo where my irritation turned into a depression. The Duomo is the most reknown symbol of Florence so it's normal that the piazza is overwhelmed by tourists the whole year around but today it just felt unbearable.

Sometimes, Florence feels like this!

I love the cathedral. It's an extraordinary piece of architecture and Brunelleschi's dome built in the early 15th century doesn't stop amazing me. You'll get the best view of the dome from the hills around the city centre, from the frog perspective it doesn't seem at all as imposing as it is in reality. The Battisterio next to the Duomo is also a wonderful building, and the oldest church in Florence (most probably ancient Florentines used to pray for Mars in this same place). Lorenzo Ghiberti's golden doors facing the Duomo are so beautiful that Michelangelo declared them as the gate to paradise. Until the end of the 19th century, all the Florentines got baptised in this building. And of course, il bello campanile, the 85m tall bell tower designed by the famous Reneissance painter Giotto. Obviously, I'm not the only one who wants to admire the piazza every now and then, and I have to admit that even after 3 years of close relation with the Duomo, I still look up to admire the dome and the campanile when I pass by. But it drives me crazy that I have to push my way through the tourist groups who are following a Spanish flag, a sunflower, an umberella, or whatever their tour guide is waving in the air. The city is ruined by the tourists, there's no doubt about that. My little visit to Bologna this week was refreshing in this sense. In comparison to Florence, there are basically no tourists.

View of the Duomo from Giardini di Bardini.

The gelateria was still busy when I returned from the book shop. In bad mood, I continued my way to another one. I crossed Piazza Signoria and was wondering if the tourists are more interested in taking funny photos of themselves with the statue of David than in the art and architecture of the city. Unfortunately, the most stupid tourists are also the most visible ones. In the corner of the Uffizi museum, a pantomimist was entertaining a small audience by making fun of the passers-by. I've always wondered that in these situations I would be wittier than the clown. Suddenly I turned my head and saw the guy on all fours, crawling behind me and peeping under my short skirt while the audience was laughing at my expense. I blushed, laughed and sent him a kiss in the air. After all the irritation, I was laughing myself about this tourist show until I found the next gelateria too busy as well.

Then suddenly, Florence can turn into this!

I returned to my own neighbourhood behind Santa Croce. There's an amazing change in atmosphere when you cross to the Eastern side of Via Verdi. Tourists somehow disappear and you start hear Italian language once again. I got my artisanal ice cream next to my place. Cioccolato alla canella and pistacchio. Satisfied.