To Santa Maria di Leuca

April 12, 2023

We get off to a successful start this morning, managing to get ourselves, our gear and our bikes down those steep stairs and onto the street without careening down head first even once between the two of us. Really, we’re very proud of it.

Our apartment in Galatina is a very welcoming place. How many of these languages do you recognize?

The ride begins with a short rattletrap ride through the historical center to the basilica for a quick second look into its frescoed interior (see previous post), and then we’re quickly out of town and on quiet roads biking south toward the end of this part of the world, Santa Maria di Leuca. We could quickly drop down to the sea and follow it most of the way, but I’ve chosen a route that stays in the interior for all but the final six miles, thinking we’ll find a quieter ride. I’m right - the first thirty miles are an excellent ride, except for brief stretches biking through a few small towns on the way.

In Salento, a spectacular place to be in the spring.

At times it feels like we’re biking through a vast flower garden.

There are two styles of these pajari: trapezoidal like this, and conical. Is there a different name for the two of them?

Looking east from the high point of the ride.

As we move further south in the peninsula structures like this become steadily more common. Here we’re at the high point of the ride (a nose bleed inducing 570’), and in addition to these three I can see five others from where I’m standing.

We climb gradually and modestly for the first ten miles before topping out at the high point of the ride and then dropping a few hundred feet over the next few miles to Casarano, the largest and by far busiest of these small towns on our route. We really don’t care for the rough surfaced, busy two-lane street we enter town on, but the traffic is dense and slow moving enough that we just take the lane. It’s not bad really, but a bit jarring after having the road to ourselves for the last hour.

After a mile or two of this though we turn off onto a very narrow, rough street and zig zag a few blocks until we suddenly emerge onto an impressive small piazza. It’s lunch time, so we find an open bar, order a couple of sandwiches, and pull up a table in the sun.

The impressively tall 18th century bell tower, Casarano.

The two bells of the clock tower. the larger one rings out the hour, and the smaller the quarters. At 12:45 twelve long, lower tones rang, then three higher pitched ones. The longest possible combination, it continued for a long time.

The obelisk of San Giovanni Elemosiniere, according to the map.

San Giovanni the Almoner, distributing alms. A Cypriot from the 6th century, the Saint has only a few places worldwide that venerate him, including Casarano.

The balcony opposite our lunch break bar, supported by nine visages with different facial expressions.

I especially like the look on the right.

Lunch stop on the plaza, where two stuffed pastries from the bar set us back €3.70. We halved and shared them both. When we cut them open we found that the first was filled with cheese and tomato, and the second was filled with - cheese and tomato.

Afterwards we’re soon out of town again and back on the same lonely roads we spent the morning on. We roll along more or less at elevation for the next ten or fifteen miles before finally dropping to the sea. We follow the coast road for the final six miles before pulling up a small hill to an our apartment and settle in for a two night stay.

Looking back at Casarano, our lunch stop for the day.

Video sound track: Your Smile, by Dino & Franco Piana Septet

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Ride stats today: 38 miles, 1,200’; for the tour: 476 miles, 29,100’

Today's ride: 38 miles (61 km)
Total: 476 miles (766 km)

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