Gravina in Puglia 3

I  made it to Gravina in little over an hour, headed straight to the local bar, sat outside and had a massive Gelato. con gusto di stracciatella and fichi caramellato.. Yummy. I headed to the room later, took a shower and just fell asleep. In the evening I explored the Gravina historic center and took photographs. I cannot post those here but if you are friends with me on facebook you are welcome to take a look at it. The historic centers in Italy is the heart in every sense of every town or village. They date back centuries and till today provide the pulse to the life. They are different region to region and the ones in Puglia are more rugged and fortified. Long narrow alleys lined with shops and businesses. Surely a piazza right in the center where almost the entire town gathers in the evening to socialize. Restaurants, cafe's and bars cater to them. In this case in Gravina not only is it beautiful but the old part of it also contains ancient caves or grottes and tunnels that were used for living or as frantoios where they made wine. They were used till a few years ago. 

Gravina in Puglia

Well the next day I decided to explore a few more places. That wine and limoncello got me drunk again and I could not wake up early yet again and faced another tough ride. This time I decided to ride to my destination without stopping too much. I took a different route for exploration sake, almost flat to compared to the previous ride and the road was so straight I had a kms of visibility in front of me.
The town I was headed to was called Poggiorsini. The town was set in the middle of these wheat vastlands and just a km in length! Took me an hour to get there at almost 25km/hr. I stopped just once to take this shot.

When I reached Poggiosini I found the piazza empty. Seemed like some of the far west movies were shot right here! There was no one and I was expecting a gun fight to breakout. Just one of those scenarios. I took a break to take more photographs. Later I went to a local bar to have a drink to refresh. The lady who worked there was keeping a curious eye on me as I struggled to find a place to leave the bike. She then finally remarked saying I should not be worrying, there was no one and very safe. I looked around and thought where the hell can one actually run with my bike in this sort of place!! I was later told that the piazza was full of people shoulder to shoulder in the evening when everyone gets back to town after the work in the fields. I lingered around for a while and just rode back home in a TT mode. The roads were that good 

I had a great trip and I love these isolated region of Italy. People crowd themselves in Tuscany and other places which are so over rated. I love the back roads. You actually get to step back in time in a place like Italy in the heart of Europe and get to see how life existed in these parts centuries ago. Some more photographs and I close this post here.

Poggiorsini

Thanks for looking!

Gravina in Puglia 2

Alright then lets move on! I did not do much that evening, I did get out and walked thru the center to get an idea of the place and get myself oriented. Had a great dinner at a local recommended taverna. A delicious Angus and red wine to accompany it with other local delicacies just made my evening. Add a limoncello to that and I remember feeling a little drunk on my way back to the hotel. Well the drunk part was confirmed when I could not get out of bed till 8 am! 

I dropped one of the panniers in the room and just filled one with camera equipment. By the time I left it was 9 am. I loaded the course on my GPS and it read 38C at 9 am!I knew it was going to be tough ride. The ride was going to be thru barren land without a tree to hide under. As soon as I left Gravina I was right in the middle of the wheat vastlands. I had never seen anyting like that in my life. Honestly felt I was in Kansas. The ride was sort of rolling hills and the traffic was mostly made of farm vehicles. A lot of people were busy working in their land and harvesting wheat or laying down the ground for the next season. It gets so hot that people prefer to work either very early in the day or late into the evening. By 10 people were winding down and I had just begun my ride. 

I took it slow and took quite a lot of photographs. The ride was a 60k loop which included passing thru a tiny farming town called Dolcecanto, descending to a dam and then climbing back to Gravina. During the entire ride I saw not more than a few vehicles and that was kind of spooky. I was the tallest object out there with no trees around! Beyond Dolcecanto I lost my way a little since the road I had chosen to descend to the Dam turned out to be a dirt road. I was not in a mood to take that in that heat and face any difficult. I took a good look at the 800 and I figured if I rode a few more kms there was an alternative to descend down to the dam but it included a climb. I thought what the hell. I went ahead and took it, passed a few climbs and then faced a one long descend into the valley enroute to the dam. Here I also got my first open view of the entire landscape. It looked great even if deprived of the best light conditions.

Vast Wheat fields in Gravina in Puglia

The descend to the dam was fast and I did not quite feel that I was riding a touring bike. The landscape was so brilliant and uniquely beautiful. The fact that I had to climb everything I was descending still did not play on my mind. I rode hard to get to the damn. The curiosity was getting the better out of me. How could there be a body of water in this barren landscape? The contrast was something I was longing to see and hence I descended very quickly. A few more rolling hills and finally I got the first glimpse of it and my heart pounded with excitement. I honestly do not have words to describe just how beautiful it was. So I will let this photograph tell you the story!

I basked in the beauty around the lake for sometime stopping quite a few times to take more photographs. By the time I was done it was mid day and it was soaring hot and the temperature had reached 40C. I had a long climb back to Gravina. I was very low on water and the heat and the warm air dried everything inside me. My mouth was so dry I was almost choking on the bike as soon as I hit the climbs. I decided to only take small sip and conserve and just ride without stopping anymore. What I enjoy during these situations is that I am able to rely on my fitness to get me thru. I was confident I would get over the climbs without any difficulty if I just rode. I mean how long can a climb really be! 10kms or 15kms back to the town? I knew it was hot but I knew I could do it. These are times I relish I train so much that I can get by these situations. Saying that honestly.

Beginning of the long climb and a brief look behind. That was the last pic I took on that ride. I packed everything and just rode back. It was tough but I was also happy I was getting a good workout.

Gravina in Puglia

It has been exactly a month since I came to Italy, my yearly pilgrimage to the holy land of bicycling. Over the past 4 weeks I have been training hard to get in some decent form for the Giro delle dolomiti in early August. Every 4th week is a recovery week, recovery here means same amount of kms but just not intense. I thought it was a perfect excuse to put my Bianchi together and head out for a tour. Also I realized that in the coming 4 weeks I would not get another opportunity. To add there were few threads here last week about touring bikes that motivated me to jump the rope.
My in-laws have been coping with the flurry of bikes that gets unpacked every time I visit. We have 5 bikes here now. The post man made it known recently that he works exclusively for me these days. I love the Volpe a lot and it reminded me of all the good times I had in Greece 2 years ago. In an instant I put the bike together, threw a rack on it, dumped some clothes and other essentials in one pannier and cameras in the other. Ohh and I also installed the new saddle. I was a bit skeptical going on a tour with a new saddle but somehow was confident because I rarely have saddle problems. I sat up in the night to draw a few routes and downloaded the courses on the Garmin 800. I decided to leave as early as 6 am. 
Woke up in the middle of the night feeling everything was done in a haste and I would not enjoy a tour since this was the first time I was going on a 3 day tour on my own. Missed my wife a lot and went to bed confirming I was not going to go. Woke up in the morning at 8! Do I go or stay back and enjoy the days at the beach? After some encouragement from the family and also from my wife back in SL I decided to go. I told either I will be back in an hour or after 3 days. And i set off. I was going to Gravina in puglia, some 100 kms away from my town further south. This place has a wonderful historic center and if I am not wrong the land around it feeds half of Italy. My plan was to ride there and spend rest of the 2 days exploring the country side and small villages. This is a very remote region in Italy not like Tuscany or the rest. 
So I began thinking I was going to ride to the next town and see if I wanted to continue. I am the most skeptical bike tourer. I was enjoying the bike. felt very smooth. I am more used to riding these roads with rigid carbon bikes. This one felt like a 4 wheel drive with super suspensions. 
Above are 2 photographs. One is as I approach the first town Locorotondo, a town that makes great white wine and the other is a shot inside the historic center of the same town.

I enjoyed a fantastic cappuccino in that town above. Took a few photographs. As I was pondering over my future plans a whole bunch of bike tourers from the US and Italy rode into town. They loved my bike and we started to talk for a few minutes and that really pushed me to go ahead with the tour. Within minutes I was on the bike riding thru a very familiar countryside. Rolling hills lined with olive trees and fruit orchards and open landscape with wheat. This time of the year the wheat has already been harvested. The first 50k or so is my training ground and I have ridden infinite number of kms thru it but most of it in a very suffering fashion. In a default mode I saw myself pushing the touring bike at 30km/hr! Some bad habits die hard! I had remind to myself that I had to ride slow and indulge otherwise I was looking at finishing my 100kms ride inside 3 hours. Thus I stopped and took these photographs.


We have been having a heat wave of sorts and the temperature now was lingering at above 38C. It was hot and I was feeling it. I was also hungry. I decided to ride town to town, most times are just 10-15kms apart. I rode thru a few without stopping and decided to take a break and fuel myself at Gioia di Colle at the 50k mark. These are rides with no shades. The ride is beautiful but one start seeing mirages after a few kms under the sun. I was happy to take this break and down a good drink and some snacks.

Anyways by the time I left Gioia del Colle it was 1pm. I knew a section of the ride was going to be on a very busy road almost a secondary highway and I wanted to avoid those busy hours. So I decided to ride on and not stop anywhere till my final destination. As I got close to the next few towns it had an industrial look to it. Nothing attractive. I just kept my head down and rode. As I got close to Gravina, the trees started to disappear and the land looked barren with miles and miles of wheat fields. Massive tractors replaced the fast cars. I was cooked by the time I got into Gravina. I had spoken to a friend who knew a good place to stay right in the center. I called him and he guided me to the B&B. They had a very spacious garage in the bottom of the building where I left the bike and headed to my room. A good shower and I settled on the roof terrace for a beer.

A view from the roof terrace right in the historic area.