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.