About running
16 Mar 2026When you’re used to running, stopping almost feels like a failure.
Everyone runs a little, for many different reasons. Some run for fun, some run to chase something, some run to escape, and some run because it’s the only way to make 24 hours feel like enough.
And then there are those who run because it’s simply how they know to live.
It’s not really about escaping, or at least not consciously. Running allows you to connect with many places, even if only for a short period of time. It gives you a pass through so many doors that you never have time to see what’s inside them. It lets you explore so many parts of yourself that you become addicted to it, enchanted by the multitude of things you can be.
Running carries a strange connotation. In modern society, if you’re not running, you must be doing something wrong: slowing down is seen as weakness, lack, inefficiency.
And I had made all of that my own. Running has always made me feel safe: I feel secure in motion, able to see everything around me, even if it’s blurred. Like a high-speed train, I traveled along the tracks of the world without ever slowing down. People jumped on while it was moving, cities rushed past, and I barely even saw the stations.
Until I had the chance to stop.
One day, suddenly, a road that once seemed impossible became the right path to take.
And I braked, abruptly.
I found myself surprised because the thing that had frightened me so much until that moment, once it happened, fit perfectly with me.
I discovered that staying doesn’t mean stopping learning, but rather getting to know things more deeply. That sometimes the things we take for granted serve as a shield for a character that is different from the person. And that the multitudes don’t depend on the place where we are, but on the curiosity we invest in what surrounds us.
And that’s how Rome became my STOP. The city where I stay, explore, and explore myself. Where I sow and cultivate. Where I grow, expand, and thrive.
I won’t deny that I miss running, but for now I’m happy to limit myself to marching in place.
