The ‘Marcia delle Ville’ is our nearest equivalent to the London Marathon. It’s a marcia podistica, which means that you can either walk or run or do a little of both. (‘Podismo’ means the discipline of race walking and running). The only differences are that there was a competitive and non-competitive section (this meant that anyone could join in from the ages of 8 to over 80), that there was a choice of routes depending upon one’s fitness and inclination and that the idyllic rural landscape we were going through was rather different from the built-up landscape of London.

(Possible routes: we opted for the 16 – so-called! – kilometre route)

In fact, the Marcia delle Ville is older than the London Marathon, having started in 1977, while the first London Marathon took place in 1981. It’s organised by the comune di Marlia together with the local club podistico and has grown from strength to strength over the years. It’s truly one of Italy’s largest and most popular family sporting events.

‘La Marcia delle Ville’ is a lovely occasion to immerse oneself in a completely Italian social atmosphere. My friend from the same school of Dulwich college first invited me for the Marcia, having been enthralled by it on a previous occasion. He said that we would probably be the only brits taking part on it and, indeed, we only heard Italian spoken by those taking part although this year we heard a couple of English voices. Was it any of you from BDL?

La Marcia delle Ville is also a wonderful chance to walk through the exquisite gardens of villas of the Luccan nobility which are normally closed to the public, to wander across succulent vineyards and silver olive groves, to pass by isolated Romanesque chapels, to gaze on colourful wild flowers, to witness some of the most stratospheric views of Lucca, to enjoy the social fun of a largely non-competitive event and to witness Italian gregariousness at its very best.

(Romanesque church and a time warp with concert at the grand Villa Guinigi)

I did this most convivial and spectacular walk last time in 2016. My wife spotted the marathon for this year in a leaflet (she is brilliant at finding out about things) and, at first, I was doubtful because of our lack of fitness that we would be able to achieve more than the ‘baby walk’. In fact, it turned out that we managed the sixteen kilometre one (which I’m sure measured rather more than sixteen…..) and were so glad we did it because it assured us that our degree of fitness was still up to it! Apart from the kilometres we both managed to lose some kilos as well which was truly welcome!

There is, of course, the final point that la Marcia truly gives one even more yearning to do a decent, daily walk of not less than two hours. Most of people’s health troubles arise from lack of proper exercise and there’s nothing better than walking, especially if the countryside is as glorious as the Luccan hills.

The weather treated us well. Unlike 2016, when the participants were threatened by storm clouds which eventually resolved themselves in a hail shower, this year we had comfortably overcast skies, mostly dried out paths and it was only towards our triumphal finish that the temperature rose to 30 degrees centigrade.

Our itinerary took us through gravelled paths, some tarmac, some very stony mule-tracks, slippery grass stretches and, of course, the lovely paths of the Luccan villa gardens.

There were free refreshment points (water, panunto bread soaked in olive oil, lemon tea, loads of nutella) and even some first aid which was useful for me as an unknown insect bite had turned my left arm red.

I was particularly excited to see the villa called La Specola, which is an observatory  built for the rulers of Lucca and designed by that great architect Nottolini. It’s such an attractive building and saved in the 1980’s from total dereliction by a baron with some cash to spend…. I wish!

(Framed! But the wine butt had already been depleted)

We returned to the starting point at Marlia’s farmers’ market where we’d got our participant numbers and walked triumphantly through the finishing line. We then collected our complementary gifts. Since the Marcia delle Ville is sponsored by a paper mill producing toilet paper, our gift bag included four very fine rolls of … toilet paper. (What else? – actually when we unwrapped it we found it was equally useful kitchen roll).

We went to be fed and watered with everything from water to wine to bruschetta to pasta. The scene was most breezy and it was lovely to see thousands of Italians of all ages having a really good time. There’s a special word to describe country walks and country enjoyments in Italian. It’s ‘scampagnata’ which means a day’s jaunt into the countryside.

Everyone had a great ‘scampagnata’ it seems! We even met the lady Doctor-in-charge of Bagni di Lucca terme who’d entered the marathon for the first time.

It’s wonderful how on a local level there’s nothing to beat an event organised by Italians. Why the government can’t learn from its people how to really do things well is something I shall never understand (there still isn’t a government in Italy yet….probably best that way, some people say).

For me the best thing was that both of us (aged seventy according to the calendar it seems, to our shock horror) were together to achieve this best of Lucca social sportive events. Thanks Sandra for being my wife and being with me and for being a truly sporty girl!

PS Noi TV  chronicled our marathon here: