Puglia is a land of great naturalistic beauties, all to be discovered slowly and the bicycle is an ideal means for this slow exploration, among splendid landscapes and joys of the palate. If you want to discover a completely new pedal-operated Puglia, Viagginbici.com takes you along the Via Traiana from Ostuni to Egnazia, to discover the natural, historical and gastronomic treasures of this beautiful region
Departure from the White City – The Via Traiana owes its name to the fact that here there is the best preserved piece of the ancient Roman road dated 108 AD. The cycling route starts from the splendid Ostuni, which dominates the sea of Salento from above. It is called the BVianca City for its houses and streets of whitewash; it is clean, tidy and perfect and contains baroque churches of rare beauty. From here we can take any type of bike because the route is almost all flat and paved. From Ostuni, follow the signs for the Albergabici, home of the Dune Costiere Park. To mark our route the dry stone walls typical of this area and to saturate our view, in this season, the patches of color ranging from the yellow of the flowering turnips, to the orange of the marigolds and to the fuchsia pink of the mallow.
Among monumental olive groves dolmens and fortified citrus groves – Many farms that here and there are scattered along the 28 km of the cycle path and many monumental olive groves. A first stop is worth it to the cave of San Michele Arcangelo, a medieval site with Byzantine-style frescoes. Continuing to pedal, we arrive at a Dolmen, a pagan funeral structure of the second millennium BC near the hotel (where you can rent city bikes, trekking, tandems and ebikes). Going up to the roof of a small peasant building you have the opportunity to admire a panorama that from the hills of the Val d’Itria reaches the sea. You will be enveloped by the scent of the good air made of mint, thyme and juniper until at a certain point inside a fortified farm you will find yourself in front of San Pietro in Ottava a pre-Romanesque Church. Here there is also a small village, a rock settlement, with an underground oil mill and a citrus grove fortified with the canalization called Arab (inside the dry stone walls).
The “blades” – After the Sanctuary of Pozzo Faceto with the Hospital of the Knights of Malta in the Fasano area there is one of the best preserved Lame complexes (Lama d’Antico). The blades are fossil rivers, ecological corridors where, through erosion, caves and rocky settlements have often been created with churches, and here in the Lama d’Antico you can visit a Cathedral in Rupe with Byzantine frescoes that will leave you speechless. . The path of the Via Traiana after a total of 28 km arrives at the National Archaeological Museum and Park of Egnazia and ends here.
from tgcom.com
