CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 484 km round trip from Vico del Gargano - roughly 9 h 13 in the saddle. It goes by way of The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan, Castel del Monte, The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley and back through The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The Gargano is the spur on the heel of Italy's boot, a block of limestone pushed out into the Adriatic, and in its heart lies the Foresta Umbra, the shady forest. The forest holds ancient beech, along with oak, hornbeam, maple and yew, and parts of it are protected as primeval beech forest in the UNESCO listing that links the beechwoods of the Carpathians and Europe. The canopy is so dense that even in July the air under the trees is cool, and the ground is carpeted with ferns and cyclamen.
Read the complete Falascone write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Falascone is where the day begins. Next is The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan.
In AD 109, the emperor Trajan opened a new road from Benevento to Brindisi, shorter and easier than the old Via Appia, and it crossed the plain of northern Puglia, past the ancient city of Canusium, today's Canosa di Puglia. Near Canosa, the road crossed the Ofanto river on a bridge whose Roman foundations still support a later structure. The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofanto crossing are part of the UNESCO listing of Via Appia, Regina Viarum, inscribed in 2024, and the plain around them is open, flat and fertile, a landscape of olive groves, vineyards and fields of wheat and artichokes.
Read the complete The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan comes up about 101 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach Castel del Monte. Next is The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley.
The Via Appia, the queen of roads, ran from Rome to Brindisi, and in Basilicata it crossed the upland of the upper Bradano valley, a high, open country of wheat fields and rolling hills, near the towns of Venosa and Palazzo San Gervasio. In 2024 the Via Appia was listed as a World Heritage Site along its whole length, and here, in the empty farmland, the line of the road can be traced in field boundaries and tracks, with occasional fragments of paving and the ruins of way stations.
Read the complete The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castel del Monte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castel del Monte sits at 206 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley comes up about 288 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Castel del Monte.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castel del Monte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 336 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Castel del Monte. Next is back through The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan, late in the day. Next is Falascone.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Falascone write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 484 km.
Falascone → The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan is 101 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan → Castel del Monte is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castel del Monte → The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley → Castel del Monte is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castel del Monte → back through The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley → back through Castel del Monte is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castel del Monte → back through The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan → Falascone is 103 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.