Trullo Sovrano and The Via Appia from Mesochorum to Scamnum

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Trullo Sovrano

   Apulia is full of oddities, but nothing in it looks as unlikely as a trullo. These are round or square dry-stone houses topped with conical roofs of grey limestone slabs, laid without any mortar, and the town of Alberobello has well over a thousand of them. The Trullo Sovrano, the Sovereign Trullo, is the biggest and the grandest, a two-storey building on a hillside square at the edge of the old quarter, and it was built in the eighteenth century for a wealthy family. Inside, it houses a small museum of everyday life, rooms divided by curtains and arches, and a dome that rises overhead like an upturned bowl.

   Read the complete Trullo Sovrano write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Trullo Sovrano is where the day begins. Next is Tarentum.

2. 2. Tarentum

   Taranto is a city between two seas. The old town sits on a small island between the Mar Grande, an open bay of the Gulf of Taranto, and the Mar Piccolo, an inner lagoon, connected to the mainland by bridges, including a swing bridge that opens to let warships pass into the naval base. Founded by Spartan colonists in the eighth century BC as Taras, it became one of the richest and most powerful cities of Magna Graecia, the Greek world in southern Italy, before falling to Rome.

   Read the complete Tarentum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Tarentum comes up about 46 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Via Appia from Mesochorum to Scamnum.

3. 3. The Via Appia from Mesochorum to Scamnum

   The last stretch of the Via Appia ran across this flat, sun-drenched part of Puglia toward Brundisium, the port from which Romans sailed to Greece and the East. The road, begun in 312 BC from Rome, was the queen of roads, and the whole route became a UNESCO site in 2024. The section between the stations the Romans called Mesochorum and Scamnum passes near Oria and Francavilla Fontana, and while little of the original paving survives here, the line of the road still shapes the landscape, with modern roads, field boundaries and farm tracks following its course.

   Read the complete The Via Appia from Mesochorum to Scamnum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach The Via Appia from Mesochorum to Scamnum. Next is back through Tarentum.

4. 4. back through Tarentum

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Tarentum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Tarentum, late in the day. Next is Trullo Sovrano.

5. 5. Trullo Sovrano

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Trullo Sovrano write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Trullo Sovrano. That is the ride.