Route 22: A ride around Manfredonia, Puglia

The quiet east coast of Italy has some brilliant roads - and some surprising hills

Brilliant seascapes and quiet hilly roads

Sticking out into the Adriatic Sea like the spur on the back of Italy’s boot, the Gargano Peninsular is blessed with a sublime climate, numerous beaches and spectacular scenery. It’s tourist heaven - which should make it a nightmare for bikes, but it’s not. Resort towns like Vieste and Peschici draw plenty of visitors, but the roads remain - for the most part - blissfully quiet. They’re great roads too.

These motorcycle touring routes are based in the southern seaside town of Manfredonia. If you need a day or two relaxing on the beach, it’s perfect for that too… But we’re here for the riding, taking the twisty coastal route round the promontory skirting the huge lagoon of Lake Varano before heading across the hills to return to base.

The secondary route spends less time by the coast and more time criss-crossing the mountainous interior, traversing the slopes of Monte Calvo and Monte Sant’Angelo. This may be a small corner of Puglia, but it’s crammed with character, scenery and brilliant roads.

MAPS AND DOWNLOADS FOR A RIDE AROUND MANFREDONIA

Map of a motorcycle touring route around Manfredonia, Italy

Route 1 (our route): start/finish: Manfredonia. Distance: 160 miles. Riding time: 5 hours. Suggested stops: AM coffee: Vieste, lunch: Rodi, PM coffee: San Marcoin Lamis
Route one map, Route one GPX file

Route 2: Distance: 210 miles. Riding time: 6 hours. Mostly flowing roads across the hills, some smaller lanes
Route two map, Route two GPX file

Please note: This page contains the route files for The RiDE Guide to motorcycle touring in Italy which came free with RiDE magazine in July 2015. These website page are not regularly updated, so please check all critical information before you travel. All route files are in .gpx format. Garmin and BMW users can download the main file, which contains all the routes and our recommended hotels as separate waypoints. TomTom users can download the individual routes and use the Tyre software to convert them. For many routes we also have Google Map links. However, as Google Maps will not plot routes over seasonally closed high Alpine passes (such as Stelvio) when they’re shut, these may not work for every route all year round.