The Giro d’Italia has been running since May 9th. A special place will go through the final. This also has to do with the late Pope.
The Vatican is known for a lot – but certainly not for sports. That will change in early June. For the first time, a global sporting event in the approximately 62 soccer fields of large church state will be guest in the heart of Rome. The Giro d’Italia.
This has been running since May 9th and ends in Rome on June 1st. Then the tour of Italy will also lead through the Vatican City. In honor of the Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday, the final of the 21 stages was changed and led by the Vatican. “It will be a very special moment after the death of Pope Francis, who has touched all of us deeply,” said Umberto Cairo, President of Giro organizer RCS Sport, before the start of the tour.
However, it starts in Rome on the Caracalla thermal baths near the Maximus Circus’. The race is started there neutralized. Then it goes past the Palatine to the Colosseum over the Tiber on the Borgo Santo Spirito in the Vatican City.
The Petriano entrance goes to St. Peter’s Basilica and from there over the train station to the helicopter landing site on the 75 meter high Vatican hill. A mountain rating is not planned there.
From there, the route continues to the Peloton to the Palazzo San Carlo, on which the race is officially started after 7.5 kilometers. Until then, there is no competitive -oriented.
If the Giro will be a guest in the Vatican, Bishop Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican Authority for Culture and Education, expects a “historical moment”, according to Vatican.
The late Pope Francis is said to have played a special role, in whose honor the route had been changed in early May. According to Tighe, he is said to have supported the idea of the giros in Vatican City.
Francis was an avowed football fan – from the club Atlético San Lorenzo from Buenos Aires, who even named his stadium after him a few days ago (you can read more about this here).
However, it is less known that the late Pontifex also had a heart for cycling. He once praised this as an expression of “courage, integrity and sense of community”.
It is not known whether Francis’ successor Leo XIV looks similar. At the latest on June 1st, he can get an idea on site.