Denise Sofia, in black spandex sweats, trotted across the busy 20th of September Street and neared the end of her morning jog. Her run had taken her through St. Peter's Square, along the Tiber River, around the ancient Roman ruins of the Forum and Colosseum.
Sofia doubles as a personal trainer and guide in a new fad in the gigantic tourism trade that floods Italy with millions of visitors every year: "sight-jogging." Tourists check out the sights as they run past. On this sunny morning, Sofia led a German woman in an hourlong dash over about 5 1/2 miles and 2,000 years of history.
—Tracy Wilkinson, "Rome's Falling Arches," Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2006
If you find the panoramas as appealing as the perspiration, consider yourself a "
sight jogger."
Plenty of business and vacation travelers pack athletic gear so they won't need to shelve their running routines. Some hit the hotel treadmill. But more now seem inclined to marry cultural enrichment with fitness — and a budding segment of the travel industry has responded, offering the gel-heeled set itineraries in which a run can be particularly enriching when enjoyed in the company of a guide, or alone on a well-planned route.
—Clayton Collins, "Been there, run that," The Christian Science Monitor, May 26, 2006
