Castel del Monte and Quartiere Monti

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Castel del Monte

   You see it long before you reach it: a pale stone crown sitting alone on a hilltop above the Murge plateau, visible for miles across the olive groves and wheat fields of northern Puglia. Castel del Monte was built in the 1240s for Emperor Frederick II, the brilliant and restless Hohenstaufen ruler whom contemporaries called the wonder of the world. It is perfectly octagonal, with eight octagonal towers at the corners and an octagonal courtyard in the middle, and nobody really knows what it was for. It has no moat, no stables, no obvious defensive purpose, which has fed centuries of theories about astronomy, geometry and mysticism. UNESCO listed it in 1996, and Italians carry it in their pockets: it is on the back of the one-cent euro coin.

   Read the complete Castel del Monte write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Castel del Monte is where the day begins. Next is The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian C.

2. 2. The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian C

   Matera is one of those places where the first view genuinely changes the mood of a day. You walk to the edge of the modern town, look down, and there are the Sassi: two hollows in the limestone filled with houses stacked on top of each other, their roofs serving as streets for the houses above, churches cut into the rock, staircases and alleys tumbling down to the edge of a deep ravine, the Gravina. Across the gorge, the Murgia plateau is riddled with caves and rock churches, some with Byzantine frescoes, used by monks and shepherds for over a thousand years. People have lived in these caves since prehistoric times, which makes Matera one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world.

   Read the complete The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian C write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian C comes up about 74 km into the recorded legs. Next is Quartiere Monti.

3. 3. Quartiere Monti

   Alberobello looks like a fairy tale for about the first thirty seconds, and then you start wondering how on earth the trulli stay up. These little round houses of limestone, with conical roofs built of flat stones stacked in rings and no mortar at all, are a building tradition unique to this corner of Puglia, and the Rione Monti quarter on the southern hill of town has the densest concentration of them anywhere, around a thousand packed along a few steep lanes.

   Read the complete Quartiere Monti write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 142 km into the recorded legs you reach Quartiere Monti. Next is back through The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian C.

4. 4. back through The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian C

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian C write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian C, late in the day. Next is Castel del Monte.

5. 5. Castel del Monte

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Castel del Monte write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Castel del Monte. That is the ride.