Once again, we were by ourselves in the breakfast area of our BnB this morning. We were served plates of fresh fruit, yogurt, meat and cheese and olive bread. All very tasty eating along with our skillfully made cappuccino and espresso.
The street in front of our BnB though, was not nearly as friendly. Taffetà b&b is on a narrow, busy street without any sidewalks. In somewhat typical Italian driving fashion, the cars were moving very fast down the small hill. We needed to stay right up close to the buildings as we prepared our bikes for the day! Once we were able to get going, the ride out of town was easy with the first 3KM all downhill in the morning sunshine.
Today`s route was short and the plan was to visit the towns of Massafra, Palagiano and Palagianello on route to Castellaneta.
Bikes were stored in the front office where Pat settled the bill.
Just out of town our route went through a rural area with many olive trees. It was harvest time for some of the trees. The little three wheeled truck is a common working vehicle here. This one is loaded with olives.
Bob KoreisThat's a wonderful example of a right sized vehicle. I'd love to se Piaggio Apes in the US in stead of the monster trucks. Much safer for those of us on two wheels. Reply to this comment 1 week ago
Massafra was the first town we passed through. It was very busy with traffic as we made our way through the newer part of town on the grid aligned roads to the town`s Vittorio Emanuele piazza. Here we stopped and watched cars continually stream around the park. After a short look around we also joined the traffic flow on to a main artery out of town. Fortunately, we again found quieter roads as we carried on to the next town of Palagiano. Here we stopped at a café for coffee and also watched the traffic stream past. These are busy towns and the traffic becomes quite concentrated on the through roads. We rarely found a divided area set aside for cyclists.
In between towns there are some roads that were very small and quiet.
The last town we rode through was Palagianello. We just stayed on the periphery of this town but it was quiet as it is only one quarter of the size of Massafra. The best part was that our route led us to an abandoned rail line that had been turned into a pedestrian/cycle path. This path took us the last five kilometres of amazing views almost all the way to Castellaneta.
An old rail line at Palagianello has a bridge that passes over one of the deep ravines that this area is famous for. Rock villages were created on the eastern shore.
In Castellaneta we stayed in the old part of town. The BnB was self checkin and everything worked like a charm. After a shower, we explored the twists and turns of the narrow streets. It is not at all touristy as there are few shops or restaurants in this area. We really liked staying in the small town.
Walking up the main street to our BnB for the night.
