The Napoli Half Marathon

Sapphire Running Team
Jul 20, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Aug 6, 2025

The Napoli Half Marathon is one of Italy's fastest growing running events. Here's our race guide

It takes in the most beautiful and historic parts of the city and has the most breathtaking view of the Mediterranean. The race is a great way to start your running year, being held in February, and it's fast. The mild temperatures in the area at this time of year make it even more attractive!

Colourful hillside buildings in Naples, Italy, feature vibrant facades in yellow, red, and blue. Cars line the street below, creating a lively urban scene.

Napoli

Naples, or Napoli for Italians, is a major port city in the south of Italy and the third largest city in the Country. It's in the Campania region and has 4.4 million inhabitants ('Neapolitans'). The intriguing city has everything for a fascinating city trip because of its rich history, the Italian cuisine and its art and culture. Combine this with a top half marathon and you have a great trip ahead. A short distance from the city of Naples are famous places of interest such as Pompeii, Herculaneum and Vesuvius. In AD 79, the volcano of Mount Vesuvius destroyed both Pompeii and Herculaneum and today the excavations and remains are one of the most popular attractions of a visit to Naples. To the South of the city is the beautiful coastal strip of the Amalfi Coast and you can also easily reach the beautiful islands such as Capri off the coast of Naples by ferry.

Naples also has a special underground network of streets and air-raid shelters. This system was already built by the Greeks and Romans and later used as air raid shelters during the Second World War. Today you can book a tour and take in the hundreds of kilometers of caves, tunnels and other underground passages. Official routes of the Naples Underground include the Napoli Sotterranea and Galleria Borbonica. The City also has a beautiful open square called Piazza del Plebiscito with the Royal Palace 'Palazzo Reale' and the Church of San Francesco di Paolo. You'll see many of these landmarks on the course.

Napoli is easily reachable from any part of Europe, thanks to its well-connected airport, railways and highways.

History of the Napoli Half Marathon

The Napoli Running company was born from an idea of Carlo Capalbo, previously chairman of the IAAF Road Running Commission and the leader of RunCzech. It was founded in 2016 by himself and 9 other members, thanks to an investment by RunCzech, a company that holds the largest number of IAAF Gold Label races in the world, and organizes, among others, the Prague Marathon). The mission of the company and of Carlo Capalbo, a Neapolitan, is to allow the city of Naples and the surrounding metropolitan area to rise to world-class levels of organizational quality, services for athletes, and participation in its competitions.

The Napoli City Half Marathon received the Bronze Label from the World Athletics, the international athletics federation. The 5-star quality race from European Athletics and is a Gold Label race for FIDAL, the Italian athletics federation. In 2022, Naples became the city in which an Italian broke the one hour barrier for the first time: this new Italian record of 59:26 was achieved by Yeman Crippa.

Race Organiser

After two years of voluntary participation in the organising of the races, in 2016, Napoli Running acquired two races in the metropolitan area of Naples (Coast to Coast now renamed Sorrento Positano and MOHM, now renamed the Napoli City Half Marathon) and the right to organise a third, long awaited Napoli International Marathon. Hopefully this one will happen soon.

When is the Napoli Half Marathon?

The race is held annually in February.

Distances

Half Marathon
Two person relay - The two participants will cover 10 km and 11, 0975 km respectively.
Family run - 2km, the day before the half and relay

Is there an Expo?

Yes. It's on Friday afternoon, normally until 8pm and all day Saturday until 9pm.

How many runners?

Approximately 6,000. There are plans to grow this significantly.

Stained-glass dome ceiling with intricate patterns, viewed from below, featuring warm yellow and cool blue hues, creating a majestic atmosphere.

The course

The course includes over 15km in the waterfront and passes by the area of the historical city center, Castel dell’Ovo, Maschio Angioino and Piazza Municipio, with unbelievable views.

It all starts (and finishes) at Mostra d‘Oltremare (9.00 am, Viale J.F. Kennedy). The first nine kilometers head east along the coast to the centre of Naples. After the halfway point between the ninth and tenth km, the route continues up to the twelfth km, turns towards Marchese Campodisola, Piazza Bovio and Corso Umberto I, proceeds in the direction of Piazza Garibaldi and back. In Piazza Bovio runners head towards via Depretis, in Piazza Municipio they turn left towards via Acton and on to Piazzale Tecchio and along the beautiful Mediterranean coastline to Mostra d'Oltremare. A start and finish in the same place is always a real positive.

What's unique?

Those views of the Mediterranean!

Do charities benefit?

Running for charity is a very new concept in Italy and it is relatively low key. The event directly donates to The Santobono ETS Hospital Supporters Foundation and there are many other charities that cooperate with Napoli Running to encourage runners to raise money for them. These include Sport Senza Frontiere, a non-profit organization in the world of childhood and sport and Komen Italia, a volunteer organization at the forefront in the fight against breast cancer throughout the nation.