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.
From Vico del Gargano it runs 353 km to Vico del Gargano; allow about 6 h 38 of riding. It goes by way of The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan, The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia and back through The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan. The line favours views over speed.
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 103 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia.
There is nothing here that announces itself. What you have is a long, almost featureless landscape of grain, stubble and the odd masseria, and under it the line of a Roman road. The Via Traiana was commissioned by the emperor Trajan around 109 AD as a faster, drier alternative to the old Appia between Benevento and Brindisi, and the stretch from Aecae to Herdonia is one of the places where you can follow its logic: flat, direct, and aimed at the next town.
Read the complete The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 171 km into the recorded legs you reach The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia. 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.
Back at Falascone. That is the ride.
Falascone → The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan is 103 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan → The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia → back through The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan → Falascone is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.