Today we were back on the bike! From Ostuni to Monopoli. The bike company’s route had us backtracking quite a bit through towns we’d already seen, like Locorotondo and Cisternino, and you know, been there, done that…so Dave did some digging and found a route online that was shorter (points for Tsana), less hilly (points for Anna), and on quieter roads (points for all). We were a bit apprehensive to change route, sight unseen, but we were all a bit sick of the hills and weren’t interested in hitting the same towns, so we gave it a shot. After another quick breakfast in Ostuni, we headed out, and quickly realized that this route was a definite better choice.
We descended quickly (which was glorious considering all the climbs we had been doing) and were on very quiet streets through more olive grove country. We made it to the coast in just 13 short miles, to the town of Torre Canne where we had a drink to refresh ourselves.
Side note: the 70 degree day was very much appreciated after multiple 80+ degree days, although there was a tradeoff for 26 mph winds, of course goign against us. Which is preferable - hills and heat or wind and temperate climate? Hard to say.
Getting to the coast was glorious, and we went through several towns including Savelletri, which was freakin’ gorgeous and we had to sit at seaside restaurant and have lunch. It was a must, so we did, and it was delicious. I mean, look at these views!
After passing an archeological area called Archeologico di Egnazia (picture below), we finally made it to Monopoli.
Our host for our Airbnb met us, and the bike guy met us shortly after to collect the bikes and we, our luggage. We highly recommend “Puglia in Movimento” for any biking transport needs in Italy — they were awesome!
The rest of the day and night, we kept it easy. We went grocery shopping and then came home and made our orecchiette from the cooking class (yes, we had been carrying it with us through two cities, waiting to have a kitchen to cook it!). We also made some tiramisu, which is a tradition from our first trip to Italy in 2015, so Anna was lucky enough to experience the amazing-ness of REAL marscapone cheese .
After dinner, we decided to stay in and watched a bootleg version of the new Backrooms movie. It was so bootleg, we could actually occasionally see silhouettes moving across the screen, so it was like you were in the movie theatre, with them. The movie had mixed reviews from all of us, and then we went to bed.