A 65km run followed by a 32km recovery day. Wow

The title really sells short his accomplishment. At least I associate the circa 1200km along the longest side with "the length of Italy".

This is the best summary I could come up with:

It's dusk in late June on a path blanketed with crumbled volcanic rock near the top of Europe's tallest active volcano, Mount Etna, as Canadian David Orr takes the last crunchy steps of a run that began at 4 o'clock that morning.

Seeking a challenge to help give his life new meaning, he decided to deepen his understanding of his adopted country while drawing attention to the widely unknown, and in parts neglected, Sentiero Italia (SI) or Great Italian Trail.

"Along with promoting slow, sustainable tourism, SI allows those walking it to get a sense of indigenous vegetation and encounter local people along the way," said Marco Garcea, a hiking guide in Calabria in southern Italy who co-wrote part of the Sentiero Italia 12-volume guidebook.

Orr's wife, Kristin Sullivan — with their two young children in tow in a camper van for several weeks – and a network of friends met him at the end of each day and organized food, lodging and other necessities.

But running the path, he said, allowed him to experience powerful transitional moments, like emerging from the depopulated south-central region of Molise, with its wind-swept yellow-brown palette giving way to the more populated Abruzzo and the north of Italy.

So he did it in one day, running 73 kilometres through Italy's Valle d'Aoste region, crossing into France at 2,300 metres to access the peak, then traversing a 100-metre "death ridge" with the risk of falling boulders.

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