Roma

I found Rome to be an interesting city. On one hand, it is a typical city with fast paced people, trash and conveniences. On the other, you could be walking along and BAM run right into a ruin. Historically it is one of the coolest cities. Fitness wise...well let's just say, we are still in Italy. I did see more runners. I could never be certain if they were Italian or expats. I did stumble upon an outdoor track facility and there were people running and working on body weight exercises, which was cool to watch. The picture to the right shows the "old school" park circuits that I used to see everywhere in parks growing up. I wonder what ever happened to them. I always thought it was a good workout. If you look at the right side of the picture below you will see a high jump with crash pad and track. I was looking down at the track facilities from a hill on the way to the Baths of Caracalla. It felt very Olympic/Gladiator (not the dying part) all at the same time. Given that Rome is a big city, I thought there would be plenty of yoga studios and gyms. I picked up a business yellow pages of sorts and looked up yoga. To my surprise there were only four studios listed. Guess where they were located...yep, you guessed it, in the touristy areas. They were amongst the Gucci, Prada, and who could forget The Hard Rock Cafe. I am not suggesting this to be a bad thing...it just figures. It may be that the Italians don't hold exercise in a studio or gym at high priority. However, they realize that other countries do, so they offer travelers their usual conveniences. Unfortunately, my goal was to see what the locals did for exercise. I think in Rome, I may have had to travel outside of the main city center to really see the fitness regime of a local Roma Italian.