Bella Italia Stage 21

Cerignola to Gravina in Puglia

Strava: 83.7 km, 926m, 4:40, 246 shifts

After a great sleep, I really enjoyed the B&B breakfast outdoors on the balcony. We packed and left at 9:30. Riding through heavy traffic in town was something we’re not used to, but soon we were on a tiny road, in the countryside, heading south. The huge amount of garbage was a surprise, at one point it was nearly a Mauritania flashback!

Pretty soon the road turned to gravel and it was a great route. We went by a rock quarry, through orchards and generally saw almost no people, just an occasional farmer in a tractor. Eventually we made it to the one town on today’s route, Minervino Murge. It’s quite hilly. Andrew had a flat near the bottom. After he quickly fixed it, he and I climbed all through the town and met Wytze and Daniel at a café at the top. We had drinks, but then Wytze noticed the lack of a lunch town ahead. He walked away and returned with a box of 12 pastries which we inhaled with a second round of drinks.

After some more tire work, we headed on. Up and down, mostly on dirt/gravel. At one point the “road” was gone and we had to ride through a field, soft and difficult. There was one long, steep and slippery descent…we all made it. Then we had just 20 km of mostly paved small road to go. There was a headwind but we have the antidote and his name starts with W.

We got almost to Gravina in Puglia when our track turned off and gave us a few more km of dirt, even some singletrack and a rocky long staircase to descend carefully. I was not prepared for the amazing sight on arrival. We were across a chasm from the Cathedral and the old town. A few tourists were walking around and we could see the famous Roman Bridge which looked like the only way we could get across to town. A nice German lady took our photos and mentioned that the Roman Bridge was a “No Time To Die” (2021 James Bond film) shooting site.

We rode across and checked out the plaza a bit then went to our apartment. It’s modern and spacious with the all important washing machine. Wytze and Andrew went to the supermarket for supplies which we attacked on their return, having skipped lunch today. Cheese, lots of nuts and fruit, a round of beers and a bottle of wine. After we ate our fill, we all sat in Andrew’s bedroom and watched “No Time To Die”, the first time for Daniel and Wytze. We saw right away where we had just ridden and James Bond had escaped certain death right there very stylishly.

The movie was almost three hours long but we still had power after for a stroll downtown and a last round of beers in the square (Brewdog IPA!)