• Apulia’s mild Mediterranean weather is perfect for cycling even during the colder months such as March and November
• The challenging switchbacks on the Gargano, the Sun Mountain
• The Salento Peninsula with its sandy beaches and folklore and the arrival to Leuca Cape

• The Mediterranean Diet at its best in the Apulian Cuisine
• The UNESCO sites of the Trulli of Alberobello and Castel del Monte. All the most iconic places of Apulia, Matera included, in a unique journey
• The panoramic seaside roads, empty during the low season

Gargano, the Sun Mountain

Gargano will captivate not only serious cyclists looking for spectacular slopes on rocky limestone shores, but also lovers of wilderness and culture. On the first riding day we will climb the top of the mountain reaching the pass of the Umbra Forest (UNESCO MAB) and then ride along the coast from Vieste and Peschici, which thanks to its ups and downs has nothing to be jealous of the world famous Amalfi Coast. The second day we will face, always with the sea on sight, the switchbacks for Monte Sant’Angelo, passing by the whitewashed Rione Junno and the grotto of Saint Michael (UNESCO site), the shrine from which the Longobard cult of the warrior-saint spread throughout the world.

Imperial Apulia and Murgia

This 3rd and 4th daily stages are designed to connect the three UNESCO sites of Castel del Monte, Alberobello’s Trulli and the Stones of Matera. The green Apulian inland adorned with olive and almond trees and the Murgia National Park plateau with its untouched pastoral landscape, a quick break in an old wood-burning oven to try focaccia and a slice of Altamura’s bread, the best in southern Italy. The Jonian Hills will surprise you with breathtaking canyons.

“Mari e Monti” Coast to Coast

The 6th stage starts with a short visit to Alberobello and reaches all downhill the Adriatic Sea, a pearl carved on limestone cliffs on the Adriatic. The seaboard goes on flat until Ostuni, the “white city” on the top of the hill, then we will engage a C2C trough the Itria Valley reaching Manduria, with its ancient pre-roman walls marking the beginning of the Salento with its typical red earth and the Primitivo wine museum, a bitter dark skinned and intensely flavored grape.

Salento Peninsula and the Finis Terrae

The day after will ride on tarmac backroads in a scattered forest of olive trees and reach the Ionian coast passing by the nature reserve of Porto Selvaggio with a final a jump in the deep blue sea of Finis Terrae. And, during the sunniest days, water is hot for having a bath in deserted crystalline bays.

We will start the second part of our Salento Peninsula Tour with the high panoramic Otranto – Leuca Coast and arrival in the baroque Lecce, the “Florence of the South”.