"Giro d'Italia" - Roadtrip through Southern Italy - Calabria/Puglia

 Roadtrip through SOUTHERN ITALY  ( ~ 4 400km)

Via Carinthia (Turracher Höhe and Spittal/Drau) my first stop in Italy was beautiful "red" BOLOGNA

Heading on south to my next stop: ROME - staying on a campsite in LIDO di OSTIA/Castelfusano:

 Using the metrolinea to visit ROME for Sightseeing:

Vaticano

Trastevere

 

 

Crossing beautiful Tuscany I continued my trip to the peninsula of SORRENTO/Costiera Amalfitana

 

The stunning  view from my campsite in Sorrento:

 

 

 

 

private campsite beach

SORRENTO:

                 

 

 

 

 

 

From Sorrento I organised myself a boat trip along the Costiera Amalfitana to AMALFI and POSITANO

 

Amalfi

 

Positano

 And some more impressions from beautiful and colourful Costiera Amalfitana...

 

 

I also walked the "Sentiero degli Dei"

 

                                        Looking down to Positano

3 days later it was time again to leave Peninsula Sorrentina...

 Crossing through Campania and heading south to CALABRIA to my next stop in PRAIA A MARE

 

Isola del Dino                                                                                          Quiet beaches of Praia a Mare

 

Bike/Train trip to Maratea

And exploring the nearby coast and beaches to find Arco Magro

hidden beach bar

Arco Magro

I continued by road trip along the west coast of Calabria, visiting Diamante and its "Murales"

 

                 Murales
 

Then I finally reached the most southern place of my road trip: Capo Vaticano

 I spent 2 wonderful days in beautiful TROPEA:

 

 

 

 

From there I made a full-day boat trip to the "ISOLE EOLIE"

 

 

LIPARI

 

VULCANO

PANAREA

            Noble green paradise

STROMBOLI

black beaches under the volcano...

My road trip continued through dry and poor regions of Calabria, crossing over to the Ionian Sea.

Next 1 day stop: LE CASTELLA near Capo Rizzuto

 

Along the Ionian Coast along the ball of the "foot" heading towards Basilicata and Italian's oldest town: MATERA

Campsite at an old "Masseria" near the cave settlements "Sassi"

Matera at night
 

After my visit at Matera I left Basicata and continued my road trip towards PUGLIA.

On the way further east, I visited Taranto...

...Gallipoli

...and OTRANTO

I stayed 2 days on the coast north of Otranto in TORRE DEL' ORSO 

"Le Due Sorelle"

 Otranto by night:

 On bike I explored more of the coast: At ROCA I found  the "Grotte della Poesia"

and "I Faraglioni" at TORRE SANT' ANDREA

My next stop on tour was the beautiful baroque town LECCE

After 17 days on tour alone, I was looking forward to get company now from Julian joined me by flying to BARI

We first spent a nice evening together at the city centre of BARI:

the "new" quater MURAT and the old city centre...

...and then along the coast south of MONOPOLI at a former Roman quarry

 We stayed there for 3 days and rented a scooter to visit nearby villages and the "Trulli areas"

                White village LOCOROTONDO

And then of course the famouse "Trulli village" ALBEROBELLO

romantic evening impressions...

We also visited MONOPOLI...

...and POLIGNANO A MARE with the scooter

 

On our way back north through Puglia we then visited CASTEL DEL MONTE - a hugh castel on a very lonesome, rural inland plateau

and continued our road trip to spned 2 hot days on the beutiful green peninsula GARGANO

 we stayed on a campsite at the beautiful town VIESTE - famouse for its rock "Pizzo Muno" and the different old town centres on the cliffs.

 There we also made a boat tour along the spectacular coast with caves, arches and cliffs...

Vieste and its "Pizzo Muno" (left side of the town)

Natural "ARCO" near San Felice

lots of hidden caves...

on the way back we were shocked, seeing a large forest fire only 6km away from Vieste!

We left Vieste following day cruising along the northern coast of GARGANO, passing by Peschici and Lago di Varano

After a long day on the road along the coastal highway A14, crossing through Molise, Abruzzo and Marche and back to Emilia-Romagna, we reached RAVENNA.

We spent the night on a campsite at Marina di Ravenna

 and visited the old Renaissance city centre of RAVENNA

We ate a wonderful fish dish at a tiny "fish market" and listed to a public concert near Dante's tomb monument...

Unfortunately soon a heavy thunderstorm made us speed back to campsite.

After a cool and wet night we finally left beautiful Italy via the Po Delta and Veneto.

With an overnight stay at Opa Sepp's at Spittal/Drau, we reached Vienna after 23 days on tour!