South of Râmnicu Vâlcea the Olt river leaves the mountains and broadens across a valley of orchards and villages, and on the terraces above it at Stolniceni lie the remains of Buridava, a Roman military settlement whose name the Romans borrowed from an older Dacian centre nearby. It sat on the Limes Alutanus, the frontier road along the Olt that guarded the eastern edge of Roman Dacia, and soldiers stationed here left inscriptions, bricks stamped with unit marks and the foundations of baths. The site is part of the Dacian frontier listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2024.
The attraction of Buridava for both Dacians and Romans was salt. At Ocnele Mari, just a few kilometres away, salt has been mined since antiquity, and the deposits are still worked today; there are salt lakes and a visitable mine. Upriver, where the Olt cuts through the Carpathians in a narrow gorge, the monastery of Cozia, founded in the fourteenth century by Prince Mircea the Elder, stands on the riverbank with its banded stone and brick church, and Mircea himself is buried there.
The riding around here is rich. North of Râmnicu Vâlcea, the Olt gorge road through the Carpathians is fast and scenic but busy with trucks heading for Sibiu. West, the road to Horezu runs along the foothills through villages famous for their glazed pottery, and from there you can reach the Transalpina at Novaci. East, the Transfăgărășan begins near Curtea de Argeș. The local roads around Stolniceni are smaller and quieter, with orchards and vineyards on the slopes, patched surfaces and village traffic. Summer can be hot in the valley, so early starts pay off.
Petrol is never a worry here: Mihăești, four kilometres off, has a station, and Râmnicu Vâlcea on the Olt has a dozen more, plus tyre shops and supermarkets. The monastery at Horezu, a masterpiece of the Brâncovenesc style with carved stone porches and painted walls, and the potters' workshops along the main street are well worth a detour west. When the day ends, papanași, fried cheese doughnuts drowned in sour cream and jam, are the traditional Oltenian reward, and the plum brandy offered with them is rarely optional.