Stage 01 of 05
Stage 1 — Into the Valle d’Itria
The inland opening, and the only day on this route with any real climbing in it. Also the only day where the surface is genuinely mixed, which is why it argues for the gravel bike.
The Valle d’Itria is not a valley in the way the word suggests. It is a shallow karst basin on the Murgia plateau, and what makes it distinctive from a saddle is the density: dry-stone walls dividing plots into small irregular parcels, trulli scattered across them in ones and twos rather than in the postcard clusters, and a lane network so fine that you can ride for an hour without meeting a road wide enough for two cars.
That density is also what makes it hard to navigate and easy to enjoy. The GPX matters more here than anywhere else on the route, because the wrong turn is not a wrong turn onto a main road — it is a wrong turn onto another identical white lane between two walls.
This stage doesn’t run in one direction, so the wind is with you and against you on the same day. Expect it from the north in season. Data.
- Distance
- 41 km — road distance, not a recorded ride
- Elevation
- Alberobello to Martina Franca, 18 km: around 250 m of climbing. From our own GPS track, ridden in October 2023 — not from a route planner. Phone GPS reads height to within a few metres, so take it as close, not exact. We have not recorded the rest of the stage, so we publish no figure for it
- Surface
- Asphalt between the towns, unsurfaced white lanes in between
- Terrain
- Repeated short rises; cumulative rather than steep
- Best bike
- Trek Checkpoint ALR — the farm tracks are the reason to be here
- Towns
- Locorotondo · Alberobello · Martina Franca · Cisternino
What the riding is actually like
The roads between Locorotondo, Alberobello and Martina Franca are fully asphalted and, outside summer weekends, close to empty. This is the part of Puglia that most resembles the cycling everyone imagines before they arrive: quiet lanes, low walls, a horizon of stone.
The climbing is real but never long. Nothing on this stage is a climb you would name; what you get instead is a day of short rises that add up. Riders describe the individual gradients as manageable and the cumulative effect over a full day as significant, which is the correct way round for a first day out of a car or a plane.
The white lanes — strade bianche — are compacted limestone, and they are the reason the Checkpoint exists on this route. On a 32 mm road tyre they are ridable and unpleasant; on a 42 mm gravel tyre they are the best surface of the day. If you have booked the Domane, the GPX will keep you on tarmac and you will miss the point of the valley.
The towns, and what to do about them
Alberobello is the famous one, a UNESCO site with two districts of trulli, and in season it is very busy. Ride to it, not through it. The historic centre is stone-paved and steep in places, and a loaded bike in a coach-tour crowd is nobody’s good afternoon.
Locorotondo is the one to sleep in if you get the choice. It sits on a rise looking over the basin, the centre is a circle of whitewashed lanes, and it is small enough that you can leave a bike somewhere sensible.
Martina Franca is bigger, baroque rather than vernacular, and the practical stop: it has the shops, the bike-adjacent services and the trains. Cisternino is the quiet alternative on the eastern side, and closer to where the next stage begins.
A general rule for all four: these historic centres are for walking. Stone paving, narrow alleys and gradients that were designed for donkeys are not improved by 42 mm tyres.
The aqueduct trail
The Ciclovia dell’Acquedotto Pugliese follows the service road of the aqueduct that brought water across the region, and a section of it runs through this stage. Where it is open it is exactly what you want: unsurfaced, traffic-free, gently graded because it follows a water conduit rather than the contours.
How much of it is open is a question we can’t answer honestly today. Published figures describe one stretch already complete here in trulli country and more on the way toward Grottaglie, with a much larger programme that was due for completion in mid-2026. We have not been able to verify what that means on the ground now. Ask us when you book and we will tell you what we last saw ourselves.
Water, food and the middle of the day
This is the stage where the towns are closest together, so water is the least of your problems here — each of the four has a public fountain in or near the main square, and the word to look for on a tap is acqua potabile. Fill up in town rather than counting on finding something between them, because between them there is nothing but walls.
The thing to plan around is la pausa. In small towns bars and shops close for roughly three hours in the early afternoon, and in summer that closure lines up precisely with the hours you would want to be sitting in shade with a cold drink. Eat before one o’clock or accept that you are eating what is in your frame bag.
When to ride it
Morning, and early in summer. This is inland Puglia at around 400 m, so nights are cooler than on the coast and the first two hours after sunrise are the best riding of the day in any month. In July and August, treat the afternoon as a rest rather than a stage.
Unlike the coastal stages, the wind is not a directional problem here: the route turns constantly, so a headwind lasts a few minutes rather than a few hours. It is the one day on the route where you can ignore the compass rose.