A sea of purple floods the streets of Florence; a giant wave of super-charged energy and excitement takes over the city by storm. The thunder of footsteps on the age-old cobblestone streets echoes off the surrounding buildings. All around, you can hear people clapping and cheering, and every once and a while the Florentines start up with their famous chant ‘oooooo eeeee ooooo eeeeee ooooo Fi-ren-ze!’
This is the Deejay Ten Race. On May 17, 2015, over 15,000 racers took on 10 glorious kilometers through the historic downtown streets of Florence, then up to the more scenic piazzale Michelangelo, down to Porta Romana, Ponte alla Carraia, on down through to piazza Duomo looping around the Baptistery, up Via Calzaiuoli and finishing in piazza della Signoria dwarfed by the magnificent and historic Palazzo Vecchio in all of its magisterial splendor.
For those who wished to participate but who were not prepared to face 10 kilometers of racing terrain, there was also the DeeJay Five Race/Walk.
The Deejay Ten has become an institution in Florence, and not just here. This racing phenomenon has taken over the cities of Milan and Bari. In fact, the next race will take place in Milan on October 11, 2015. For more information, see www.deejayten.it.
Deejay Ten was started a few years ago by the famous Italian radio host and founder of Radio DeeJay, Linus, an avid runner.
