The Su e zo per i ponti (''Up and Down the Bridges'' in the

Venetian language Venetian, wider Venetian or Venetan ( or ) is a Romance language spoken natively in the northeast of Italy,Ethnologue mostly in the Veneto region, where most of the five million inhabitants can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and of ...

) is a non-competitive walk held in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

in April. The walk starts in the

Piazza San Marco Piazza San Marco (; vec, Piasa San Marco), often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as ''la Piazza'' ("the Square"). All other urban spaces in the city (exc ...

, in front of the Doge's Palace. Walkers follow a route characteristic of the city, which leads them through ''calli'' (streets), ''campi'' (squares) and ''ponti'' (bridges). The ''Su e Zo'' is also known as Solidarity Walk (it. ''passeggiata di solidarietà'') because the revenues of the event go to charitable projects. Different routes are laid out for various age groups: the main circuit runs over 47 bridges and is 12 km long whereas a shorter route is 7 km long and crosses 27 bridges. Beverage is provided by the organisators along the track. About 400-600 volunteers help with the organisation and implementation of the event, which is visited by about 10 to 12,000 participants every year. The event is managed by the TGS Eurogroup (Turismo Giovanile Sociale, it. Social Youth Tourism), a non-profit organisation founded by a

Salesian of Don Bosco The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in the late 19th century by Italian priest Saint John Bosco to help poor children du ...

, Dino Berti, who has started the Su e Zo walk in 1975. Walkers receive a commemorative medal on completing the event, groups from a given size up will receive a larger badge. There are special prizes for schools in different categories and special groups. After the award ceremony other festivities follow such as a performance of flag-wavers and folklore groups. The revenues from starting fees are donated to charity projects, often in developing countries such as Peru, Brasil, Syria, Etopia, Haiti or the earthquake affected town of L'Aquila.

External links

The official website
in Italian and English
BBC World News on the 2009 ''Su e zo per i ponti''

References

Sport in Venice Athletics competitions in Italy Road running competitions Spring (season) events in Italy {{italy-stub