Cycling in Puglia
Gravel between the olive groves, dry-stone walls and trulli of Italy's heel.
Puglia is the heel of the Italian boot, and it is about as far from the Dolomites as Italian cycling gets. There are no passes here. What there is instead is a dense web of tiny farm lanes, white limestone tracks and old service roads threading between olive groves, dry-stone walls and the cone-roofed trulli of the Valle d'Itria. It is gravel country, and it is very good gravel country.
The backbone of it all is the Ciclovia dell'Acqua, a long-distance cycleway built on the service road of the aqueduct that has carried water across the region for a century. The signposted stretch through the Valle d'Itria between Locorotondo, Cisternino and Ceglie Messapica is the showpiece: traffic-free, mostly hard-packed gravel, and gently graded because water does not like hills. Further north, the Alta Murgia national park is a high, empty plateau of white roads and big skies around Castel del Monte. The Gargano promontory in the far north is the only part of the region with real climbing, and down in the Salento the riding hugs a spectacular, windy coastline.
A few practical notes. The gravel here is limestone: sharp, dusty and hard on tyres, so run tubeless or carry more repair kit than usual. Shade is rare and the wind is not, so plan the day around both. Water is easy to find at fountains in the villages, but the lanes between them can be long and empty. And like much of rural southern Italy, expect the occasional loose farm dog.
Best time to visit
Plan your cycling adventure during the optimal seasons for the best experience.
The best months are March to May and September to October: warm, dry, and long before or after the summer crowds. Spring adds wildflowers along the lanes and green fields on the Murgia before they turn to straw.
July and August are hard work. Temperatures regularly pass 35°C, the gravel radiates heat, and the coast is packed. If you ride in summer, start at dawn and be done by late morning. Winter is mild and mostly rideable, but wetter and windier, and the unpaved tracks can turn to mud after rain.
Routes
Ciclovia dell'Acqua loop
A very fun loop from Contrada Marangiulo via Cisternino onto the Ciclovia dell'Acqua: traffic-free gravel, ever so slightly downhill, past the Galante bridge and countless trulli to Ceglie Messapica, then back north on narrow broken lanes and gravel through the olive groves. Hilly all the way, no killer climbs.
Smeraldo Trail loop
A popular Komoot mountain bike loop from Cisternino down the Murgia escarpment towards Ostuni, past Santa Maria di Agnano and the Sant'Oronzo sanctuary. Red dirt roads through ancient olive groves and great views of the coast and the white city. More adventurous than advertised, with a good 10 to 15 km of pushing on overgrown and rocky trails.
Dune Costiere run to the sea
From the trulli country around Cisternino all the way down to the Adriatic and back. Quiet lanes between drystone walls drop 380 metres past the Dolmen di Montalbano into the olive plain, then reach the beaches and dunes of the Parco Naturale Regionale Dune Costiere at Pilone. A bit of everything underwheel: good tarmac, bad tarmac, gravel roads, dirt and sand. The return is the sting in the tail, a long gravel drag through Speziale and a 2.4 km climb at 7% back up the escarpment to Caranna.