Grand Traverse Explorer - South to North

The heel of Italy to the lagoons of Venice

Twenty-two days, just under 1,100 miles, and almost 22,000 metres of climbing — that's the shape of this end-to-end road ride up the spine of Italy. It begins at Santa Maria di Leuca, the southernmost cape of Puglia's heel, where the Adriatic and Ionian seas meet, and finishes in Venice. Along the way the route threads through ten UNESCO World Heritage sites and five national parks: the sassi and rock churches of Matera, the trulli of Alberobello, Castel del Monte (Frederick II's hunting lodge in Andria), the historic centres of Pienza and Siena, the Val d'Orcia, Assisi and the Basilica of San Francesco, the Po delta, and Venice itself.

It is a long trip and an honest one. Italy is not all hill towns and cypress avenues — there are flat stretches across the Veneto, days when the climbing in Abruzzo is genuinely hard, and the small joins between famous places that most cyclists never see. The point of doing it in one go is to feel that geography stitched together rather than sampled.

What the riding feels like

The early days through Puglia warm the legs up gently along chalk coastline, with possible stops in Otranto — its cathedral the largest in the region — before the route turns north through Lecce. From there you climb into Basilicata for Matera, then up through the Apennines into Abruzzo's mountain passes, the toughest section of the trip. Umbria brings Assisi; Tuscany brings the Val d'Orcia, Pienza and Siena, with the kind of rolling, vineyard-edged riding the region is known for. The Veneto flatlands take you across the Po delta to a finale in Venice — a city of canals and, for a road cyclist, a deliberately strange place to end up after three weeks in the saddle.

Day 2 alone is 63 miles with 810 metres of ascent, so the average daily distance gives a fair sense of the commitment required. The reward is a continuous line up the country: ten World Heritage sites, five national parks, and the slow accumulation of regional food and wine — Puglia to the Veneto, dish by dish, glass by glass.

Bookings and logistics

Prices start from £5,495 per person for the 22 days. The trip is graded across all five of Saddle Skedaddle's difficulty levels, reflecting how varied the terrain is from flat coastal road to serious Apennine climbing — riders need to be comfortable with sustained back-to-back days in the saddle and the ascent figures involved.

Arrival is into Bari airport (BRI), followed by a three-hour transfer south to Santa Maria di Leuca, with time on the first evening to assemble bikes before dinner. The trip is fully guided and runs as a group, so much of the appeal is the camaraderie of riding the full traverse with the same people for three weeks. A shorter 17-day Grand Traverse Classic running north to south is offered as an alternative for those who want the spine of the route without the full south-to-north distance. For full daily distances, ascent figures and inclusions, request the trip notes from Saddle Skedaddle.