Biking
Puglia Biking – Overview
Based on the advice of the self-guided bike tour company we used for our 2011 Catalonia bike trip (which really was the best one we’ve done), Puglia was the target of our trip this year – the heel of the boot in Italy:
Within Puglia, we biked 8 days for more than 340 km and stayed in five different towns. Here’s a cartographic overview of the bike trip:
We flew into Bari, spent the first night in Conversano, then worked our way south, to Alberobello, Ostuni, Otranto, and then back-tracked to Lecce. We biked every day but one (you’ll understand why when you see the Masseria blog entry) and did loop rides when we stayed for two nights in a town. This turned out be a great strategy, since we were able to stay in one place for a couple of days and get to explore more after riding each day.
Each day’s ride was pretty leisurely – usually around 35 to 45 km (with one 80 km day along the Adriatic), and we’d stop for lunch with a couple of glasses of vino della casa at a town along the way, so the post-lunch portion of the ride was pretty mellow. The time remaining was still ample for exploring each town, since we wouldn’t eat dinner until at least 9:00. As a result, we also got a good feel for the social rhythms of Puglia – the towns were always deserted between 5:00 and 8:00, then quickly turned into a packed social scene by 10:00.
Puglia Biking – Jetlagged in Conversano
Because we arrived in Conversano in the early afternoon, an option available to us was to ride to Polignano a Mare – a fishing village on the coast. Despite the fact that we hadn’t had any sleep in more than 30 hours, we exercised this option. (Lisa, by the way, is a machine – she rocked the route and navigated by Braille all the way to the Adriatic, caroming off the stone walls that lined the roads.) The next day, we rode to our next destination – Alberobello.
Actual travel date: September 1. 2013
Puglia Biking – Alberobello
As we approached Alberobello, the trulli houses had reached critical mass. Much of the town was comprised of preserved trulli, including a very touristy area on one hill and purely residential trulli on the other.
Actual travel date: September 2, 2013
Puglia Biking – Valle d’Itria Loop Ride
While in Alberobello, we did a loop ride through the Itrian Valley. This was undoubtedly the most interesting ride, primarily due to the two kickass little towns we ended up hanging out in during the day – Locorotondo and Martina Franca.
Actual travel date: September 3, 2013
Puglia Biking – Olives, Fountains, and Figs
We experienced three things consistently during each of our 8 days of riding – olive groves, fountains with potable water, and roadside fig trees. The first is self-explanatory (although one of the very cool things in Puglia is the preponderance of groves of massive olive trees that are hundreds and hundreds of years old). The second is likely relevant only to bikers in the area – there are public fountains with potable water both in towns and in some of the most unlikely places in the middle of nowhere, much to our relief during our loop ride from Ostuni.
Finally, the fig trees. I was completely oblivious to these, but Lisa turned out to be particularly attuned to the little snack machines. At some point during most of our rides, I’d look back, and she’d be gone. A few minutes later, she’d ride up, grinning, with a handful of ripe figs that she spotted. They were great to have on the ride, particularly since they were plucked fresh off a tree. (This also worked for almonds in one instance, which was great.)
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