White Towns, Sassi & Trulli

It must be time to get on top of things. Matera’s cathedral has a mighty fine location, right on top of the spur which divides the ‘Sasso Caveso’ and ‘Sasso Barisano’ – the caves deep in the steep tufa gorge walls. The views across the massive gulf are breath-taking and it’s easy to spend a day in Matera simply wandering and wondering, but on the outskirts of town, the imposing towers and ramparts of the Castillo Tramontano reach other heights and the whole of the rugged gorge has time-honoured treasures to share. Head out along the popular Belevedere Path or pedal into the rocky hinterland on your own adventure to discover cave churches full of frescoes or maybe even the ‘Grotta dei Pipistrelli’, the haunting cave of bats!

Overnight in Matera.

An early breakfast is recommended so you are ready to receive your bikes. We recommend that you set out as soon as you can to make the most of a great day’s cycling as you cross the robust Sassi landscapes, leaving Matera’s towering ramparts and the Basilicata province for the softer green countryside of Puglia’s Valle d’Itria and Alberobello – the capital of indigenous trulli houses and your UNESCO World Heritage Site number two. Rugged rockscapes lead on to wooded slopes, vineyards and olive groves as the countryside begins to disclose clusters of the little limestone houses with grey conical roofs. The climax comes in Alberobello, home to over 1,500 of these fascinating single storey dwellings and one of Europe’s most unusual urban spectacles. To look at, the trulli seem a strange cross between kiln, tepee and igloo: they were originally constructed without the use of mortar, their stone roofs topped with wonderful finials and often decorated with mysterious symbols. Experience the charm of these unique historic buildings for yourself with your overnight in Alberobello in an authentic trullo house.

Miles: 47 Kms: 75

Don’t miss the tiny trullo church of Sant ‘Antonio or catch the only multi-storied trullo house, Trullo Sovrano, in the Piazza Sacramento before you set off for some rather different architectural delights in Locorotondo – the ‘balcony of the Valle d’Itria’. Here the curved trulli houses give way to box houses or ‘cummerse’, almost Baltic in style with pointed gables and plenty of straight lines. The angular shapes seem strangely incongruous with the town’s curving hillscape and circular street plan which gave it the name ‘loco rotondo’. Heading onward through olive grove and vineyard vistas, the tiny, betowered and whitewashed village of Cisternino is a charming find, but everything is on a much grander scale in Ostuni, the mighty medieval ‘Città Bianca’, both wonderfully white and lavishly Baroque and laced with every kind of history imaginable from the Greeks to Bourbons and Byzantines.

Overnight in Ostuni.

Miles: 22 Kms: 36

Depart after breakfast, or take time for a last wander around the town of Ostuni.