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 Venosa it runs 293 km to Venosa; allow about 4 h 57 of riding. On the way it passes The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia, The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu and back through The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia comes up about 90 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu.
Trajan was an emperor who liked roads, and in about AD 109 he opened a new one to shorten the journey from Rome to Brindisi, the port for Greece and the East. The old Via Appia went the long way round, down through the marshes and the coast, and the Via Traiana cut inland from Benevento through the hills of Irpinia and across the Apulian plain. This section, from Beneventum toward the old stop of Aequum Tuticum near modern Ariano Irpino, crosses a country of rolling grain fields, hill villages and wind turbines turning on the ridges.
Read the complete The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu. Next is back through The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia, late in the day. Next is 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 at The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley. That is the ride.
The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley → The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia is 90 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia → The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu → back through The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia → The Via Appia in the upper Bradano Valley is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.