3 days Bikepacking around Matera and cycling through amazing landscapes; adventure, nature but also historical sites and local delicacies

This event is for crazy people:
📌 cycling adventures and bikepacking lovers
📌 minimalists that are used to bring with themselves as less as they can
📌 cyclists that are not afraid of hard climbs, gravel and dirt roads, long days on the saddle
Join Apulia Handmade and Ferula Viaggi to discover one of the most unspoiled and unexplored part of Italy: Basilicata!
We will start in Matera a 170km loop in three days of old fashioned cycling!
📅 DAY 1: we will all meet up ready to cycle in Matera for a coffee in a local cafe to meet and brief everyone. Imediately after we will start cycling all along San Giuliano Lake towards a big climb to get to Grassano where we will stop for the night.
📅 DAY 2: leaving Grassano we will start going down through the surreal “calanchi” landscape (a very artistic erosion phenomenon) and then climbing to the ghost town of Craco where we will stop for a snack (offered by ghosts?).
We will continue then on the way to a an agriturismo where we will have time to rest and explore before dinner. There is also an additional climb for the most adventurous to go up to Pisticci for an aperitivo.
📅 DAY 3: We will start our third dat to get back to Matera with a nice old road on the way to the nice little village of Pomarico after that we will make a second stop for a snack at an abandoned train station; a quite magical place surrounded by pure nature. getting back to Matera it is going to be just wheat fields and then the last climb. We should arrive by lunch time (Italian lunch time)
* WHAT’S INCLUDED? *
🆓 A guide cycling with us all the time managing the itinerary and the program and aswering to all our curiosities (why people lived in caves in Matera? Why Craco was abbandoned? What are peperoni cruschi?
🆓 2 nights in decent and simple accomodation typical of the area
🆓 2 dinners
* HOW DOES IT WORK? *
1. It is basically a self-supported trip (withouth the support of any vehicle)
2. We will cycle together, but each of us will get maps of our day by day itinerary so can feel more independent to be slower or faster. However we have set a series of stops where we will gather everyone
3. It is going to be super hot, so we will manage to leave very early in the morning to be able to pedal as much as we can when it is not too crazy hot, but the guide will plan for us more stops according with everybody’s needs.
4. Our organization is able to provide bikes to rent (https://www.bikebasilicata.it/gravel-bikes/) and we can organise transfers to be paid on the spot in case anyone needs. Our guide will help you to take care of your bike and find a bike shop if necessary.
* WHAT TO BRING? *
✅ Comfortable bikes with tyres at least 28mm wide
✅ Safety lights
✅ Something to get change and at least some deodorant 🤭
✅ A small tool kit and some spares
✅ Some extra cash to offer us a coffee
✅ A big smile and will to have fun
* ITINERARY *
DAY 1: Matera – Miglionico about 46 Km
DAY 2: Miglionico – Pisticci 63 Km
DAY 3: Pisticci – Matera 57 Km
* PRICE *
“The price of the tour starts from 300€.
The tour will depart with a minimum of four people”