Whenever on vacation I make it a habit to visit a local gym and over the past 30+ years I have worked out in gyms in Jamaica, Italy, California, Florida, Ohio, Bermuda, Vermont and countless other places. Besides restaurants, there are no better places to really get the local flavor and mix with the natives than the local gym. However, while restaurants are easy to find, depending on where you visit you may have to look harder – in some cases much harder – to find a gym.
This month our family went to Italy and we stayed in a town in Umbria called Trevi, which is why I haven’t posted anything new over the past 2 weeks. Like the good little tourists we are we had planned things out months ahead of time; rented a van, arranged for dinner, bought tickets to see Michaelangelo’s David, and checked the Internet for a gym. I really was surprised that it was easy to find a gym – The Coliseum Gym in Trevi (PG).
Finding The Coliseum’s web site was a lot easier than finding it on Google maps, and finding the actual gym once we were in Trevi was one of the more difficult encounters we had the entire time we were in the country. As I said Google maps – and the GPS system we had – was of no use; it put us some 25 kilometers away. One day my wife and I took a stab at trying to find it based on the Google directions. I call it getting “purposefully lost.” We didn’t get lost and we didn’t find the gym, either.
So one day after navigating a trip that got us to Florence, I set out to find The Coliseum Gym in Trevi, once and for all. I visited the Bar Chalet, the local cafe located in the heart of Trevi, and asked if anyone know where the gym was. Thanks to Alessandro, a real barista who works at Bar Chalet, I found a local who was able to give me directions to la palestra (that’s Italian for gym); it was literally 5 minutes a way, right under our noses!
The Coliseum in Trevi is a fantastic, full service gym that would be great in any town, in any country. The facility is spotless and is manned by the owner Marco and his wife. The gym is loaded with all of the equipment anyone needs to get a great workout and they have a juice bar that serves protein shakes, as well as delicious espresso. And of course, Marco offers up the best in Italian hospitality.
Among the services they offers is “Pandemonium,” an Italian take on Cross-Fit. They also have a dedicated spin class studio and a full-slate of aerobics classes.
If you ever visit Umbria – particularly the Trevi area – and are looking to exercise, you should visit The Coliseum gym in Trevi.
Hi Sal , thank’s for your compliments for my Gym and for my country !!!!
Excellent advise. Never think of going to local gym while traveling, certainly would add to local flavor.