ITINERARY
The Salento Trail is the result of an idea dictated by a passion for «Irregular Roads»; a mixed dirt-asphalt route that will allow you to get to know Salento from a rural, naturalistic, historical-cultural and culinary point of view. Our route has San Cassiano as its starting and finishing point where we can count on the presence of a bike hostel and a cycle workshop.
The track of the event is 350 km and it will be a bikepacking event!
The 4 rules for the operation of the Salento Trail are as follows:
ONE SHOT: The route is a 350km ring that you can manage on your own based on how much and how you want to pedal and enjoy our area. You will have absolute freedom on when and how to pedal, where to sleep and rest or eat.
For those who do not have the time, the desire or the legs to cover the entire itinerary, two further itineraries have been designed (provided at the time of registration):
1.Northern route (160km)
2.Intermediate route (250km)
Which follow the original track, respectively up to Castro (North route) and up to Leuca (intermediate route), to then leave it and take you back to the starting point always along captivating and unedited paths
FOLLOW: We will give you a GPS track to follow and respect. You will be able to abandon the track for necessity or your needs but you will have to start it again from the same point.
SELF-SUSTEINED: We will not give you any assistance nor will you be able to bring any personal assistance. It will be you and your bike.
NO TIME: You will not have a time limit, you decide your pace and your times. Do you want to run…run, do you want to rest…rest, the important thing is to respect the highway code.
Description of the track
Salento was a territory of conquest and looting. The municipality of San Cassiano itself is a small village born around the year one thousand following the destruction of the town of Muro Leccese by the Saracens.
Salento is located in the center of the Mediterranean, a land bridge between East and West, a point of transit and fusion between Greek and Latin culture, the place where the signs of these millennial passages have stratified.
Salento Trail was designed to embrace our landscape as a result of different processes between history, culture and natural beauty. A journey that we will make by bike, our passion but also our dream tool. We want to give you unique moments, a new experience, a journey to find yourself or a journey to get lost and to make it an object of contemplation.
It starts from the hinterland, through the Salento countryside, among the rural architectures made of pajare and dry stone walls, a journey north-east up to the Alimini lakes. We will head further north on the cliffs overlooking the sea of Torre dell’Orso which surround a large stretch of beach. From here our itinerary will continue south through pine forests and tunnels in the vegetation, trees and shrubs shaped by the wind with the classic flag appearance. Thus we will arrive in Otranto.
Pedaling south the coast road will be our backbone but with incursions inland we will touch Dolmen and Menhir, ancient Messapian walls, to then pedal on Romanesque cobblestones. The Calabrian-Sallentina appian way divided Salento from east to west, a two-lane infrastructure where the smooth pavement still bears the ruts of the cart roads.
Old farmhouses, medieval villages, fortified farmhouses and holm oak woods that now represent the relict strips of the ancient oak forest that covered the entire Salento.
The olive grove was the planting crop that gradually replaced this ancient forest that structured a landscape and stopped the clock of time for several hundred years.
From Capo di Leuca (where Italy begins) we will go up our peninsula to Marina di Ugento.
The route will always have the sea as its background and background. Here, in Salento, the sea mixed with the wind has a strange effect. Contemptuous and pungent north wind, salty and morbid wind that of the sirocco. But there are many other shades!
From this point we will take more inland roads dominating our “Greenhouses“, climbs that are a little gentle and a little arduous, with dry, short and hard climbs, almost as if we wanted to quickly reach the sky or conquer our perched villages like Specchia. Towns defended by towers or thick walls, towns with a beating heart and with the floor of the historic centers polished with bright white stone.
Finally, down towards the plain, inside the Paduli with its canals and reclamation works, monumental trees and labyrinthine streets.
It is our last stretch of the journey where we can rethink our experience.
Points of interest
1. Messapian Walls (300th BC)
2. Menhir Palmisano
3. Vetch boulders
4. Medieval farmhouse Quattromacine (900)
5. Aragonese Castle of Palmariggi (1480)
6. Masseria and Park of Torcito (1100)
7. Alimini lakes
8. Faraglioni “the two sisters”
9. Mosaic of Otranto (1163-1165 by the monk Pantaleone)
10. Serpent Tower
11. Bauxite Pond
12. Masseria Cippano
13. Minervino Tower
14. Palazzo Sticchi – Santa Cesarea terme
15. Aragonese Castle of Castro (oldest structure XII-XIII century (built on a Byzantine fortress)
16. Serra del Mito and Torre del Sasso
17. Castle of Tricase
18. Specchia Grande Tower
19. Ciolo bridge
20. Sanctuary “Fiibus Terrae” – Santa Maria di Leuca
21. Cave of the Fairies
22. Mozza Tower
23. Ugento Coastal Regional Natural Park
24. Terre Suda
25. Castle of Gallipoli
26. Serra di Calaturo
27. Castle of Ugento
28. Casina Cazzato – Carratta
29. Palazzo Protonobilissimo Rasolo
30. Church of the Madonna della Serra
31. Masseria “le Stanzie”
32. Paduli Park
ITINERARY
The Salento Trail is the result of an idea dictated by a passion for «Irregular Roads»; a mixed dirt-asphalt route that will allow you to get to know Salento from a rural, naturalistic, historical-cultural and culinary point of view. Our route has San Cassiano as its starting and finishing point where we can count on the presence of a bike hostel and a cycle workshop.
The track of the event is 350 km and it will be a bikepacking event!
The 4 rules for the operation of the Salento Trail are as follows:
ONE SHOT: The route is a 350km ring that you can manage on your own based on how much and how you want to pedal and enjoy our area. You will have absolute freedom on when and how to pedal, where to sleep and rest or eat.
For those who do not have the time, the desire or the legs to cover the entire itinerary, two further itineraries have been designed (provided at the time of registration):
1.Northern route (160km)
2.Intermediate route (250km)
Which follow the original track, respectively up to Castro (North route) and up to Leuca (intermediate route), to then leave it and take you back to the starting point always along captivating and unedited paths
FOLLOW: We will give you a GPS track to follow and respect. You will be able to abandon the track for necessity or your needs but you will have to start it again from the same point.
SELF-SUSTEINED: We will not give you any assistance nor will you be able to bring any personal assistance. It will be you and your bike.
NO TIME: You will not have a time limit, you decide your pace and your times. Do you want to run…run, do you want to rest…rest, the important thing is to respect the highway code.
Description of the track
Salento was a territory of conquest and looting. The municipality of San Cassiano itself is a small village born around the year one thousand following the destruction of the town of Muro Leccese by the Saracens.
Salento is located in the center of the Mediterranean, a land bridge between East and West, a point of transit and fusion between Greek and Latin culture, the place where the signs of these millennial passages have stratified.
Salento Trail was designed to embrace our landscape as a result of different processes between history, culture and natural beauty. A journey that we will make by bike, our passion but also our dream tool. We want to give you unique moments, a new experience, a journey to find yourself or a journey to get lost and to make it an object of contemplation.
It starts from the hinterland, through the Salento countryside, among the rural architectures made of pajare and dry stone walls, a journey north-east up to the Alimini lakes. We will head further north on the cliffs overlooking the sea of Torre dell’Orso which surround a large stretch of beach. From here our itinerary will continue south through pine forests and tunnels in the vegetation, trees and shrubs shaped by the wind with the classic flag appearance. Thus we will arrive in Otranto.
Pedaling south the coast road will be our backbone but with incursions inland we will touch Dolmen and Menhir, ancient Messapian walls, to then pedal on Romanesque cobblestones. The Calabrian-Sallentina appian way divided Salento from east to west, a two-lane infrastructure where the smooth pavement still bears the ruts of the cart roads.
Old farmhouses, medieval villages, fortified farmhouses and holm oak woods that now represent the relict strips of the ancient oak forest that covered the entire Salento.
The olive grove was the planting crop that gradually replaced this ancient forest that structured a landscape and stopped the clock of time for several hundred years.
From Capo di Leuca (where Italy begins) we will go up our peninsula to Marina di Ugento.
The route will always have the sea as its background and background. Here, in Salento, the sea mixed with the wind has a strange effect. Contemptuous and pungent north wind, salty and morbid wind that of the sirocco. But there are many other shades!
From this point we will take more inland roads dominating our “Greenhouses“, climbs that are a little gentle and a little arduous, with dry, short and hard climbs, almost as if we wanted to quickly reach the sky or conquer our perched villages like Specchia. Towns defended by towers or thick walls, towns with a beating heart and with the floor of the historic centers polished with bright white stone.
Finally, down towards the plain, inside the Paduli with its canals and reclamation works, monumental trees and labyrinthine streets.
It is our last stretch of the journey where we can rethink our experience.
Points of interest
1. Messapian Walls (300th BC)
2. Menhir Palmisano
3. Vetch boulders
4. Medieval farmhouse Quattromacine (900)
5. Aragonese Castle of Palmariggi (1480)
6. Masseria and Park of Torcito (1100)
7. Alimini lakes
8. Faraglioni “the two sisters”
9. Mosaic of Otranto (1163-1165 by the monk Pantaleone)
10. Serpent Tower
11. Bauxite Pond
12. Masseria Cippano
13. Minervino Tower
14. Palazzo Sticchi – Santa Cesarea terme
15. Aragonese Castle of Castro (oldest structure XII-XIII century (built on a Byzantine fortress)
16. Serra del Mito and Torre del Sasso
17. Castle of Tricase
18. Specchia Grande Tower
19. Ciolo bridge
20. Sanctuary “Fiibus Terrae” – Santa Maria di Leuca
21. Cave of the Fairies
22. Mozza Tower
23. Ugento Coastal Regional Natural Park
24. Terre Suda
25. Castle of Gallipoli
26. Serra di Calaturo
27. Castle of Ugento
28. Casina Cazzato – Carratta
29. Palazzo Protonobilissimo Rasolo
30. Church of the Madonna della Serra
31. Masseria “le Stanzie”
32. Paduli Park
