Before catching the ferry back to Sicily, let’s have a quick retrospective on our tour of the southern Italian mainland.  First up, here’s an updated version of our route, reflecting where we actually went rather than what was planned:

It’s really pretty close to the original concept, but there were a a few deviations.  The main one of course was our route from Altamura to Vieste sul Mare.  Originally we had intended to bike the whole way, by way of Andria, Melfi, Benevento, and Avallino.  We scrapped that idea completely, and instead looped the Gargano peninsula and then biked to the Potenza where we caught a train to the west coast.  The other changes were quite minor in comparison to that.

Some stats:

• 46 days: 21 in Puglia, 10 in Calabria, 9 in Basilicata, 6 in Campania

• 36 cycling days, covering  1,300 miles and 80,000’ elevation gain
• Rainout days: 2
• Flat tires: 1
• Favorite towns (chronologically): Scilla, Amantea, Morano Calabro, Rocca Imperiale, Matera, Otranto, Lecce, Peschici, Maratea
• Best experience: staying with Maria and Jack
• Least pleasant experience: biking into Potenza.

I was quite surprised by our overall experience throughout this region.  We were looking forward to touring here (obviously, or we wouldn’t have come here), but it really exceeded expectations in many ways.  Wonderful cycling, fascinating small towns, awesome terrain, great eating, unspoiled by tourism, inexpensive.  There’s not much we’d change here, other than to adjust the season and be here a week or two earlier in the year before the it warms up too much.  With luck, we’ll be back.