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 298 km round trip from Monte Sant'Angelo - roughly 5 h 39 in the saddle. The stops in between: 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. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Few pilgrimage sites in Europe sit as dramatically as this one, high on the spur of the Gargano peninsula, the spur on Italy's boot. Monte Sant'Angelo is a white town draped along a ridge about eight hundred metres above the sea, and the sanctuary of San Michele is built into a natural cave below the main street. Tradition holds that the Archangel Michael appeared to the local bishop here at the end of the fifth century, and the cave has drawn pilgrims ever since: Lombards who made it their national shrine, Norman knights, crusaders on their way to the Holy Land, and the faithful of every age. You enter down a long flight of steps, eighty-six of them by the usual count, and the air cools as you descend. Inside, the rock itself is part of the church, damp and bare, with a statue of the archangel and centuries of carved and painted additions around it. It was inscribed as part of the Longobards in Italy World Heritage listing in 2011.
Read the complete The Sanctuary of San Michele write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Sanctuary of San Michele 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 76 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 144 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 The Sanctuary of San Michele.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Sanctuary of San Michele write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The Sanctuary of San Michele. That is the ride.
The Sanctuary of San Michele → The Appia Traiana at Canusium and the Ofan is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → The Sanctuary of San Michele is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.