The Route

 

The general plan is to ride from Bologna to Lecce via an inland route. This turns out to be about 1060km. It is mostly secondary roads but with some cycle paths included. Needless to say there are a few climbs but nothing like the Alps or Dolomites. I wanted to start further north, but starting at (say) Torino or Trento would add another 250-400km to the route. Actually riding the Po plain is not my cup of tea anyway, so reluctantly this will have to be for another day.

The route is broken up into three roughly equal parts. These are notionally about one week each.

Part 1 - Bologna to Narni This section is the flat ride to Forli then the climb up over the mountains and then down again, then a mostly flat section following the Tiber river valley.

Part 2 - Narni to Accadia Mostly small towns in the mountains. Two days over 1300m. Beautiful national parks and forests. Fertile valleys between mountain ranges.

Part 3 - Accadia to Lecce flat to rolling hills through the beautiful cities of the south.

For the GPS files of the route for each day, see this RidewithGPS collection.

Route Highlights

For me, here are some of the highlights:

• Bologna - a fabulous city.
• Following the upper reaches of Fiume Tevere (the Tiber River) downhill after we crest the boundary between Emilia-Romagna and Toscana. A fair part of the route is on a cycleway along the river.
• The Palio della Balestra (crossbow tournament) in Sansepolcro with all the typical pageantry.
• The scenic small hilltop towns of Todi and Narni on which Narnia is based.
• Agriturismo (farm) accommodation at a "paddock to plate" restaurant.
• The beautiful climb from Sulmona.
• The beautiful and historic cities of L'Aquila, Sulmona and Benevento.
• Accommodation with an organic wine and cheese producer with dinner in their restaurant.
• Joining up with EuroVelo 5 for some of the last parts of the route.
• Two iconic locations from the latest Bond film, No Time To Die at Matera and Gravinia in Puglia, including riding over "that" bridge.
• Matera. Gob-smacking.
• Dinner at a restaurant featuring their home-grown fruit and vegetables.
• The string of pearls from Alberobello to Ostuni.
• Wine tasting and lunch at a winery in the Salento wine making area.

Travel Scheduling

Given my preference for rest days every two or three days an approximate schedule would like something like this, where the grey shading is an overnight stop and the blue shading is a rest day:

Having 100km for the first day of riding looks ambitious but Faenza at 55km and Forli at 72km are both on the railway line from Bologna so some of that can be skipped if we are under time pressure. This is straight, flat semi-urban riding so not one of the highlights anyway. We can make a decision about this as late as on the morning we depart Bologna.

The back end of the trip is heavily loaded with rest days because these towns just need more time to take in! Of course there is the flexibility to stop earlier or ride longer on each day depending on condition, tiredness and any mechanical issues. One thing is for sure and that is that having the ebike will take the sting out of the climbs!

Note also the distance and ascent for each day. There are three days with more than 1000m of climbing.  If necessary batteries can be topped up somewhere along the way. I have tried to arrange it so that days with more climbing have less distance.

Planning for Mishaps

It is possible that something could go wrong - a bike mechanical, a brief illness or a small accident might cause some delay in the journey. It will be possible to “skip ahead” down the route from one significant town to another. With a bicycle, trains are better than buses. Here is just a brief “chain” of train linkages that could be used. Planning additional ones is easy with the Rome 2 Rio website

From	To	Express	Comment
Bologna	Forli		Lots
Forli	Perugia	Yes	4-6 hours, via Ancona Foligno or Bologna/Firenze
Perugia	Spoleto	Yes	52 minutes direct
Narni	L'Aquila	No	From Terni or Rieti, 2 hour direct
L'Aquila	Sulmona	No	1 hour direct
L'Aquila	Benevento	Some	6 hours
Benevento	Foggia	Yes	90 minutes
Candela	Gioia Del Colle	No	4 hours, 3 trains via Bari and Foggia
Gioia Del Colle	Lecce	No	2 hours direct

If express trains are not used then you don’t have to package up your bike. To use an express train it must be in a bag.