Sanremo Marathon: Dates, Tickets & Venue (Sanremo)

Race day on the Riviera dei Fiori

The Sanremo Marathon takes place on Sunday, December 6, 2026. The programme covers a full marathon, a half-marathon and shorter distances, so a whole running club can travel together and every member finds a race that suits them.

Sanremo sits on the stretch of Ligurian coast called the Riviera dei Fiori, the Riviera of Flowers, a short drive from the French border. Behind the seafront, the hills are terraced with greenhouses. In December the coast is usually mild for running, with sea on one side and the Maritime Alps behind.

Getting to Sanremo

Most international runners fly into Nice Côte d’Azur Airport, about an hour away by road. Genoa’s airport is the Italian alternative, further east along the coast.

• By train: regional trains on the Genoa–Ventimiglia line stop at Sanremo station. The station is built inside a long tunnel under the hillside, so the walk from platform to street level runs through a lengthy underground corridor.
• From France: trains from Nice run to Ventimiglia, where you change for the short hop to Sanremo.
• On foot in town: the centre is compact. Corso Matteotti, the main shopping street, and the seafront are both walkable from most hotels.

Two days in Sanremo around the race

Runners mostly stay a night either side of the race. The town has enough to fill the spare hours at an easy walking pace:

• La Pigna: the medieval old town, a steep tangle of covered alleys and stairways climbing up the hill.
• Casinò di Sanremo: the Art Nouveau casino building on Corso degli Inglesi.
• Teatro Ariston: home of the Sanremo Music Festival, Italy’s long-running televised song contest.
• Chiesa Russa Ortodossa: the Russian Orthodox church with onion domes, built for the Russian aristocrats who wintered here.
• Via Roma: the street where the Milan–San Remo cycling classic has traditionally finished.
• The coastal cycle path: a flat seafront path laid along the old railway line, which local runners use for easy shakeout jogs.

December 8 is the Immacolata, a national holiday in Italy, and in 2026 it falls on a Tuesday. Many Italian visitors turn race weekend into a long ponte break, so hotels in town tend to fill up across those days.

Racing in Italy: what runners usually sort out

Competitive road races in Italy run under the national athletics federation, FIDAL. Entrants without an Italian club membership typically register with a Runcard and a medical certificate of fitness for competitive sport. Overseas runners usually get this certificate signed at home before they travel. Shorter non-competitive races generally have looser requirements.

The rest of the weekend follows local habits:

• Coffee before the start: Italians drink espresso standing at the bar. In busier places you often pay at the till first and then hand over the receipt.
• Carb-loading: trofie al pesto is the Ligurian pasta that runners eat the night before. Farinata, a thin chickpea pancake, is the local snack.
• Paying: cards are widely accepted. Tipping is not expected, and a coperto (cover charge) printed on the menu is normal.
• Sunday: race day is a Sunday, so some smaller shops stay closed while bars and bakeries near the seafront open.