Trail dei Laghi Fortorini

A race created to unite the Fortore

The Trail dei Laghi Fortorini is a dirt-track race of about ten kilometers held in the heart of the Fortore, the most inland and least-traveled area of the province of Benevento, in Campania. This is not a city race: it starts at Lake Mignatta, in the municipality of San Giorgio La Molara, and finishes at Lake San Giovanni in Foiano di Val Fortore. Between these two bodies of water, the route crosses three other towns—Molinara, San Marco dei Cavoti, and Montefalcone di Val Fortore—transforming a sporting event into a genuine journey through a slice of the Sannio Apennines.

The idea was born in 2025 from an operational agreement between the five municipal administrations, which chose to jointly fund the event and schedule it every year in July. The first edition, on July 12, 2025, brought over two hundred athletes to roads that usually see only agricultural vehicles; the second, on Saturday, July 11, 2026, exceeded 220 participants, with runners arriving from other regions of Southern Italy as well.

The route: lakes, woods, and wind turbines

The course is a point-to-point route that never doubles back. It starts from the shores of Lake Mignatta and climbs toward the ridges separating the valleys, through trails, grassy stretches, and gravel roads, in the shadow of the large wind turbines that have become the distinctive landmark of the Fortore landscape. The finish line is at Lake San Giovanni. The elevation changes are constant but never prohibitive: it is an accessible trail race that rewards consistency more than pure power.

• Start: Lake Mignatta, San Giorgio La Molara
• Passage through: Molinara, San Marco dei Cavoti, Montefalcone di Val Fortore
• Finish: Lake San Giovanni, Foiano di Val Fortore
• Distance: approximately 10-11 kilometers on dirt roads, trails, and mixed terrain
• Time: late afternoon start (4:00 PM in 2026, 5:00 PM in 2025) to avoid the hottest hours of July

Organizers

The race is managed by the sports club A.S.D. Napoli Nord Marathon, chaired by Antonio Esposito, with technical direction by Maurizio Marino and the patronage of CONI and FIDAL. The Trail dei Laghi Fortorini is therefore a competitive, timed event included in the national calendar. Alongside the organizers are the mayors of the five municipalities involved and the Comunità Montana del Fortore, who attend the awards ceremonies not just for the ribbon-cutting, but because the race is explicitly a tool for regional promotion.

Hall of Fame

• 2025: Simone Antonio Di Mauro (Amalfi Coast) in 38'39'' and Monica Alfano (Podistica Cava) in 50'21''
• 2026: Raffaele Petrillo (Podisti Alto Sannio) in 44'20'' and Lara Matrone (Team Vesuvius) in 59'35''

Special Guests

Both editions featured ambassadors who need no introduction in the running world: in 2025, Piedmontese ultramarathoner Marco Olmo, and in 2026, Giacomo Leone, half-marathon world champion and winner of the 1996 New York City Marathon. Leone interpreted the event as a sign of a clear trend: races are moving away from urban centers toward open natural spaces, and the athlete is becoming increasingly integrated into the identity of the territories they traverse.

The Fortore, the other Campania

Those who arrive here for the first time immediately realize this is not the Campania of postcards. The Fortore is a land of rolling hills and lush woods, small lakes, and towns that have been fighting against depopulation for years: "we must work together to break out of isolation," said the mayor of Foiano di Val Fortore at the first edition. The wind, which moves the turbines visible from every ridge, is as much a part of the landscape as the trails. Running the Trail dei Laghi Fortorini means crossing five municipal territories in just over an hour—a journey that would take half a day of winding roads by car.

A growing event

Organizers and officials have repeatedly announced their intention to extend the route, involving other municipalities of the Comunità Montana and a third lake, with the stated goal of becoming a race of national and international appeal. For now, the numbers remain modest, and that is precisely what makes the experience special: you run in a small group, welcomed by local communities, in a context where sport is never separated from the landscape.