Rome - day 3
Our last day in Italy! Another sunny day!! We took the hotel shuttle to the airport, only 10 minutes away and got our oversized luggage (the bikes) checked in. Our flight to Montreal was delayed by 2 1/2 hours so we had plenty of time. Our son picked us up in Montreal and we drove home to Ottawa. T...
Rome - day 2
Today was our day for a guided tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. We met at the meeting point close to the Colosseum and met Alice, our tour guide. She handed out audio sets so that we could all hear her as we walked towards the Colosseum. She was a very good guide, offering h...
Vatican City
The Monastery had a nice continental breakfast for us. It was a rainy morning but we were well equipped with our ponchos to keep us dry. We met our friends at the Vatican City ticket office where we picked up our pre-booked tickets to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museums are s...
Rome
Another early morning to take the train to Rome which took about 3 hours from Salerno. Once at the train station, we took a taxi to our next accommodation, a Monastery, in the heart of Rome. The others in our group stayed at a different location. The nuns that greeted us were very nice. Once we se...
Capri
We got up extra early today so that we could catch an early ferry to Capri, a pretty island about 2 hours away. It was already quite crowded with tourists. The first thing we did was to buy tickets to go up on the funicular to the top of the hill which lasted about 5 minutes, and then we were gree...
Salerno
This B&B had a very nice breakfast for us on the terrace. We packed up and took a taxi to the bus station where we boarded a coach bus to Brindisi airport and picked up our rental van. It was an extra large van so we were able to get all our luggage in, including our bikes which John had disassembl...
Last day on the bikes
We said our goodbyes to our wonderful hostess, Madelena, and off we went for our last day of riding our bikes. We really enjoyed staying at Tenuta Donn Anna and would highly recommend it for anyone thinking of visiting this area. Once again our route took us on quiet contry roads meandering past st...
Positano
Mike and Ralph returned the van early this morning. Travelling by boat is the way to go in this area. We took a ferry to Positano, a beautiful seaside town on the Almafi coast, with the mountains in the background. Even though it was a cloudier day, the ferry ride alone was very picturesque, ph...
Pompei
Our apartment had a nice terrace looking out over the sea and so we took advantage of it and had our breakfasts outside. We had the van for one more day so we decided to go to Pompeii, about 45 minute drive, to see the ancient city that was buried in ash from a volcanoe in 79 AD. It was a very inte...
Galatone - day 2
We did not ride our bikes today. We had a lovely breakfast on the patio and then we walked into the nearby town (Secli), about 1.5 km for a honey tasting. This local honey producer has bee hives all over the Salento area. They produce different flavours including orange, eucalyptus, coriander and th...
Galatone
Another wonderful breakfast at our Masseria. We found that one of the bikes had a flat tire, before we left. Once that was fixed, we were ready to go. We rode on country roads back to the coast, stopping to pick up some groceries for lunch. We stopped at Punta della Suina, which is a famous summer b...
Ugento
We rode along the waterfront of Santa Maria di Leuca, the most southern point of Italy, as we departed for another day of riding. Another beautiful sunny day!! We passed through some small villages on quiet country roads and stopped to see some historic sites including a monument founded in the 9th...
Santa Maria di Leuca
With a big (long) day ahead of us, we fueled up on a really nice breakfast that the Masseria had for us. Our first stop was at the quarry lake of Bauxite known for its turquoise water, framed by jagged rocks and hidden in a scrubby landscape. It did not disappoint.... it was beautiful!! We rode alon...
Otranto - day 2
Today, we had a shorter ride out into the countryside. We had nice country roads to ride on, mostly paved but some were dirt and stone. There is alot of stone here, stone fences, stone walls, stones scattered in the fields and stone houses!! We had a scheduled tasting at a lovely local bakery in For...
Otranto
Up early and met the gang for breakfast. We walked over to the Salento Bici tour company's warehouse to pick up the bikes and gear for our friends. Then our biking trip began! We headed out through the winding streets and alleys of Lecce and we were out in the country after about 4 km. At about 5 km...
Lecce5
Another beautiful sunny day! We ventured out to explore more of the old city this morning. The mornings are bustling with store merchants, shoppers and tourists and then by 1 pm, it is like a ghost town. A few restaurants remain open but stores close up until later in the afternoon. We visited the i...
Lecce - Porto Cesareo
We checked out of our apartment that we had for the last 5 nights and went to a B&B that we had booked quite awhile ago through the tour company that we will be using for our self guided bike tour starting on Saturday. We left our bags there and then headed for the coast, the Ionian Sea Coast today!...
Lecce - San Cataldo
Today we headed out for a bike ride to the coast. San Cataldo is a seaside resort town, a short distance from Lecce. The beaches are beautiful and the water of the Adriatic is, as ever, a spectacular mix of greens, turquoise and blues. We had a swim in the sea. The water is still pretty nice, once y...
Lecce - day 4
Back to sunshine today!! This morning we went on a 2 hour guided walking tour of the old city. It was interesting as we learned a few things that we were curious about. Also, we thought that we had already seen all the major sights but the guide took us to some others and told some interesting stori...
Lecce - day 3
Today was our first day of rain, all day long. We got a box from our local DHL courier site, packed up our camping gear and sent it home since we are only staying in B&B's and rental units from now on. Glad we don't have to lug all of that stuff for the last 3 weeks of our trip. So what to do on a r...
Lecce - day 2
We ventured out into Lecce, the old city, today. This historic city of 96,000 residents, is also nicknamed the "Florence of the South" because of its rich baroque architectural monuments found in the city. It is also known for its "Lecce stone" - a particular kind of limestone which is one of the ci...
Lecce1
Getting through Brindisi was a bit challenging, lots of traffic and other cyclists. Once we were out of the city, the roads were pretty good. We chose the country roads instead of the busy highway. That was a good decision for most of the way but, after awhile, we found ourselves on some really bad...
Brindisi - day 2, walking
We had a bit of a lazy morning, trying to decide on what we wanted to do with our last few days before we join our friends from Montreal for a bike tour of the lower Puglia area. We checked into nearby campgounds but it appears that they are closed for the season. So we decided to book a place in Le...
Brindisi
We packed up and left early foregoing breakfast and thought we would just stop for something later. We had to go back through the country roads that we rode on yesterday to get on the proper route. This was certainly not a hardship!!.... we had views of the beautiful olive groves again and the sea i...
Pilone
Ostuni was one of our favorite spots and so it was sad to leave today. However, we ventured out to the coast, leaving Ostuni not far behind. About 15 kilometers and we were at the Adriatic Sea once again. We decided to try to find all the points of interest that our host from Ostuni told us about. F...
Ostuni - day 2
Today we explored Ostuni, known as the "white city". Originally the practice of lime-washing the town served as a means of lightening up the dark, labyrinthine medieval streets but in the 17th century it became a matter of life and death and was used to limit the depredations of the plague. This cit...
Ostuni
We had another incredible breakfast at our B&B in Maduria and then headed back towards the Adriatic coast along countryside roads. During the first part of the ride we passed a mix of vineyards and olive groves. At one point, we stopped for a drink and happened to talk to a farmer who was clearing a...
Manduria- San Pietra In Bevegna loop
Our destination today was the beach!! After all our bike riding along this coast, we thought it would be fun to take some time to enjoy the beautiful water and just sit on the beach. We had a bit of bike riding to get there, but at least our load was substantially lighter. Also, there was a hill - g...
Manduria - day 2
Our B&B served up a lovely breakfast on the patio today. It was actually raining for a couple of hours this morning, so we waited until about noon before venturing out to explore this town. We picked up maps and information from the tourist office and saw the main attractions and historic sites incl...
Manduria
Today was our second day of overcast skies since we started biking , a nice break from the hot sun, but it was very humid. We travelled along the Ionian Sea coast with a mix of rugged beauty and white sandy beaches. The villages we passed through are tourist towns as there are many restaurants, bars...
Taranto - Day 2
Today, we decided to head into Taranto but not on our bikes. The roads are too busy based on yesterday's experience. So we decided to take the bus. We managed to figure out what bus to take and at what time with a little help from our campground host. Prior to this, Judy booked a tuk tuk tour of Tar...
Taranto
We left a little later than we had planned. Our host had brought us fresh bread and we cooked up a nice breakfast of eggs which we had not had since we left home. We packed up our bikes and left with the destination of Taranto. We made it to Locorotonda, about 12 kms away. This town is listed as one...
Alberobella -day 2
We took our time getting ready to leave for town this morning. Had a late breakfast and John cleaned the bikes. We rode into town and locked our bikes up in the town centre. Alberobella has an interesting history. Dating back to the 1400's, it developed into a farming community. The Trulli house was...
Alberobella
Another sunny day in Italy! We had a beautiful breakfast on the balcony of our B&B overlooking the countryside. All packed up, we left for another day of adventure with the destination of Alberobella. The headwind was quite strong as left our B&B outside of Gioia del Colle so the first 12 km was a...
Gioia del Colle
We left our campsite by 9 am and travelled back the same route to Gioia del Colle along the flat country road, as an overnight stop enroute to Alberobella. We intended to find a B&B in town but as we arrived, and stopped to figure out our way into the downtown area, we met a British man who was out...
Matera
We took the 0930 shuttle into Matera this morning. Boy, were we ever glad that we were not on our bikes as there was another steep climb up into the old part of town. This part of town, known as the "Sassi" area (meaning stone in Italian), was bustling with tourists. We tried to join an English guid...
Matera
We were surprised to be greeted by a lovely varied breakfast this morning at the B&B. We were offered everything from eggs, freshly squeezed orange juice, breads, jams, fresh fruit, homemade cakes and cookies, yogurt to freshly made bruschetta. Such a nice change from the typical Italian breakfast o...
Putignano
Everyday is a different adventure. Today was an exercise in endurance and patience!! We decided to leave the coast and head inland, with a destination of Materas, a city known for its cave dwellings. We started our day heading back to Monopoli so that we could get on the right route. Not long into o...
Monopoli
On the way out of Bari this morning, we passed by the harbor where some fishermen were slamming octopus against the rock. We learned from our tour guide yesterday that this is a traditional method of preparing the octopus in this region. Also called "curling", the purpose is to kill the nerve ending...
Bari walking tours
We spent the day touring Bari by walking tours. The first one was a walking tour of the old city. Bari is a port city and the capital of southern Italy's Puglia region. Its mazelike old town, occupies the land between 2 harbors. Surrounded by narrow winding streets, the 11th century basilica of San...
Bari
We had a lovely campground last night. The view was incredible. The campground restaurant served authentic Apulia food which was fun to try. The Manager of the campground was quite impressed that we were from Canada on bicycles. As we arrived he announced to the fellow campers that we were Canadians...
Bisceglie
It as overcast and slightly cooler today which allowed us to go a little farther today. We went through alot of farmland on back roads and saw lots of vineyards and olive groves. We also went through a Nature Reserve and saw some native birds including flamingos. We finally pulled into our campgroun...
Manfredonia - Day 2
We started our day trying to find where to catch our boat to go on a tour of the Gargano National Park coast line. We followed google maps but we ended up not seeing the place and walked right by it. There were no signs. After about 20 minutes of walking around, a phone to the organizer and some hel...
Manfredonia
Our van picked us up about 10 am. Fortunately, we managed to fit in both bikes and all our bags. The ride to Manfredonia provided really nice views of the Gargano National Park as we drove around the outside perimeter of the hills. Our driver dropped us off at the port in the downtown area. We asse...
Lesina
Today was our first real overcast day which was fortunate since we had no real shady spots to pull over on our bike route. As we were getting closer to the Gargano National Park, we had to decide whether we would go through the park or around it. The web photos of this park look absolutely stunnin...
Campomarino
Beautiful sunrise today. We were biking on a mix of bike paths going through tunnels and the SS16 secondary highway. We stopped to take pictures at Termoli, a city with an old town, protected by a wall. Inside the wall are pastel coloured houses and the Belvedere Tower stands in a prominent spot ov...
Vasto
Today, we had a lovely ride on beautiful bike paths along the seaside. Part of the route took us through a few tunnels which provided some nice cool shade. We rode through a town called Otrano which was the site of a battle in 1943 in which a number of Canadians died. There is a cemetery called the...
Francavilla al Mare
Another hot sunny day in Italy. Our campsite was about 50 ft from the beach and so it was pretty easy to walk down to the beach and take a few sunrise pictures again. The staff were just putting up the umbrellas, getting the beach ready for the sun bathers. Our ride today was much the same, mostly...
Stork Family Camping Village, Giulanova
Judy woke of early and took a couple of sunrise pictures of the beach and sea. We packed up early and were off by 9 am this morning. We had a mix of beach side riding and SS16 (a secondary highway) riding today. The beach side bike paths are really easy, paved and straight. The downside is that the...
Santa Maria a Mare
We started the day going down the long hill that we climbed yesterday!! From the beautiful town of Sirolo we rode down to the sea level town of Numana. Numana was very busy with lots of people, motorbikes, cars and bicycles. Being the last weekend of the Italian vacation time, we think it is probab...
Sirolo
We got up early today and hit the road around 8 am. In the beginning of our ride, we followed the bike path along the beach for a long way, almost to Ancona. It was a really nice ride with few pedestrians, the rising sun and the turquoise water. Ancona and its suburbs are perched on a hill. Once we...
Cycling to Stella Maris campground near Tourette
We left Riccione around 9:30 and biked south along the beach. And, then we got onto the SS16, a more major road. The up side is that we could ride faster but the downside is that is a busier road. However, there was a nice shoulder to ride on. We had to climb a pretty significant hill but, at the to...
Castello di Gradara
About 15 km from our campsite is Gradara Castle, a medieval fortress perched on a hill about 142 metres above sea level and surrounded by protective walls. The castle and its village within the walls, dates back to the period between the 11th and 15th centuries. Legend has it that the castle was the...
Riccione
As we were preparing to leave our campsite and we had the bikes loaded up, John noticed that his tire was flat. He pumped it up and all was good. We checked out of our campsite and headed south with the destination of a campsite just past Ricionne. About one hour into our ride, John noticed that hi...
Lido di Savio
Today we had a nice ride out to the countryside. The terrain is very flat and looks like very fertile farmland. We passed a lot of fruit trees and fields of sunflowers appear ready for harvesting. Overall, the roads have been good. We rode on a mixture of gravel and asphalt. Our Da Brim hats are hol...
Lido di Savio - day 2
Today we decided to venture out on our bikes to discover some of the countryside. We found ourselves on a path that was overgrown with what appeared to be bamboo plants. Once out of that area, we were on nice flat country roads. We ended up back at the beach area and returned to our campsite. Hot an...
Ravenna to Lido di Savio
We left our lovely B&B by mid morning, for the start of our biking tour. Like any other city, it is always a bit challenging to get out of the city, as we had to stop and check the map periodically to make sure we were going in the right direction. We were out of the city fairly quickly and found ou...
Ravenna - day 3
Ravenna is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage site with 8 monuments added to their list because of the outstanding value and significance of the mosaics contained within each one. Today we took a guided walking tour to 5 of the 8 monuments in the city. Our tour guide, Marco, took us on a journ...
Ravenna - day 2
Our B&B provided a great breakfast. Then we headed out to explore Ravenna, found the tourist office and picked up some maps and tips. We decided to book a guided walking tour for tomorrow morning. In the afternoon. as we walked along the many old cobbled streets, we saw several shops that closed up...
Ravenna - day 1
After a long day of train travel with bike boxes in tow, we arrived at the Ravenna train station about 1630. We had to drag our bike boxes to our B&B along the streets as the taxi's were not much bigger than the bike boxes. Thankfully, it was a very short distance. We checked into our lovely B&B in...
Arrived
We arrived in Rome in the early morning with all of our luggage intact. The train station is right across the street from the airport. We took the 40 minute train ride to the main terminal in downtown Rome which appeared to be in a constant state of organized chaos. We boarded one of the super fast...