SALENTO TRAIL
Story cycle of a journey
This is the presentation of a group of friends who are passionate about bikes and lovers of Salento, and how those friends first became a group and then an association. It is the story of a profound passion for the territory, a deep-rooted respect for nature enriched by an irrepressible attraction for adventure and exploration. It is the synthesis of years spent informing and researching all the beauty of this fantastic peninsula ‘the extreme south of Italy… and finally, this is the story of how, over the years, those places, those passions and those conversations were transformed into itineraries and then became paths, which connected in a unique and fluid way gave life to this incredible adventure
This is how ASD Rtquadro was born with the aim of giving those who want to try it a fantastic experience of history, seas, places and typically Salento cuisine.
We don’t aim to be yet another trail of a beautiful Italy to visit and discover, we want to be an all-round experience, a journey in Salento, nature, food, places, history, culture… not hot coffee but ice coffee and with almond milk, not speed but slowness, not gellini but typical dishes, not water and salts but Negroamaro and Malvasia, not shower but swimming in the sea, not bed but nature, not stress but relaxation and love…
The SaletoTrail will allow you to get to know Salento in detail
Rural, with a route that winds mainly through the Salento countryside
Naturalistic, with 3 parks crossed, Cesine Oasis, Terra D’Otranto Natural Park, Litole di Ugento Natural Park
Historical-cultural, with historical monuments from the Neolithic with the Dolmens, Menhirs to the Middle Ages with the famous Watchtowers and Fortified Farms, as well as the Castles of Otranto, Casto, Gallipoli and the fortified cities of Specchia and Acaya
Culinary, with themed refreshments we will offer you a taste of Salento cuisine, from pasticciotto to frisella and rustic
The SalentoTrail is the “Irregular Road Experience” a mixed route, dirt-asphalt, which in the 2024 edition, from the Parco del Crocefisso in Muro Leccese, guides you to Lecce passing through the fortified city of Acaya, and then continues to the Oasis of the Cesine, up to the sea, the Adriatic one, the one north of Otranto, the one with the sandy coasts so to speak, and it does so, passing through the hinterland, through the Salento countryside, crossing the signs left by a thousand-year history of peoples who they have occurred in these lands since the Neolithic. Pedaling, you will pass by Menhirs and Dolmens of an age of which they are the only witnesses and you will cross unmistakable signs left by disappeared civilizations (Messapi), and then pedal on streets dug by the wheels of horse-drawn carts starting from the Roman period and then farmhouses and Medieval villages and fortified farms and woods from before agriculture.
Crossing olive groves and hills covered with Mediterranean scrub, the route will take you to the sea. Here, in Salento, the sea has a strange effect, the gaze extends far away, the eyes shine with light and warmth and the heart is filled with feeling and admiration. The sea, of this long journey, is the main actor, once encountered north of Otranto, it will accompany you to the head of Leuca and beyond, going up the peninsula to the marina of Ugento and Gallipoli where it will greet you, certain of being a goodbye, never a goodbye, because this sea remains inside your heart and on your skin with its scent of saltiness and infinity.
Leaving the sea, you take the road back which is always a little melancholy and this is how you will feel when you climb from the coast towards the hills, our «Serre Salentine», which will escort you to the starting point, a little sweet and a little arduous, with dry, short and hard tears almost as if you wanted to quickly reach the sky.
Riding the narrow streets of the greenhouses, on the back of a donkey, you will arrive at conquering Specchia, a perched city, defended by thick walls, and you will feel like you are entering it on your steed, with a sore shoulder just like after a long ride, but the attack is been launched and the city taken… and then away, away again, ever closer to the goal, and always towards a greenhouse, from where we salute his Madonna, with our gaze turned towards ever more distant horizons…
And finally down towards the plain, into the Paduli with its thousand-year-old trees and its labyrinthine streets from which it is difficult to escape without nostalgia mixed with a sense of peace and tranquility.
But in the meantime we have arrived, and after a greeting to the brightest light, Scorrano with its international Luminarie, we give ourselves a hug… tired, sweaty, hungry and thirsty… and let ourselves be pampered, refreshed and recharged until we become human again.
What a journey it has been!!! Millennia transformed into kilometres, the past crossed on a bike and a future full of intentions… Salento will be in my present again.
Story cycle of a journey
This is the presentation of a group of friends who are passionate about bikes and lovers of Salento, and how those friends first became a group and then an association. It is the story of a profound passion for the territory, a deep-rooted respect for nature enriched by an irrepressible attraction for adventure and exploration. It is the synthesis of years spent informing and researching all the beauty of this fantastic peninsula ‘the extreme south of Italy… and finally, this is the story of how, over the years, those places, those passions and those conversations were transformed into itineraries and then became paths, which connected in a unique and fluid way gave life to this incredible adventure
This is how ASD Rtquadro was born with the aim of giving those who want to try it a fantastic experience of history, seas, places and typically Salento cuisine.
We don’t aim to be yet another trail of a beautiful Italy to visit and discover, we want to be an all-round experience, a journey in Salento, nature, food, places, history, culture… not hot coffee but ice coffee and with almond milk, not speed but slowness, not gellini but typical dishes, not water and salts but Negroamaro and Malvasia, not shower but swimming in the sea, not bed but nature, not stress but relaxation and love…
The SaletoTrail will allow you to get to know Salento in detail
Rural, with a route that winds mainly through the Salento countryside
Naturalistic, with 3 parks crossed, Cesine Oasis, Terra D’Otranto Natural Park, Litole di Ugento Natural Park
Historical-cultural, with historical monuments from the Neolithic with the Dolmens, Menhirs to the Middle Ages with the famous Watchtowers and Fortified Farms, as well as the Castles of Otranto, Casto, Gallipoli and the fortified cities of Specchia and Acaya
Culinary, with themed refreshments we will offer you a taste of Salento cuisine, from pasticciotto to frisella and rustic
The SalentoTrail is the “Irregular Road Experience” a mixed route, dirt-asphalt, which in the 2024 edition, from the Parco del Crocefisso in Muro Leccese, guides you to Lecce passing through the fortified city of Acaya, and then continues to the Oasis of the Cesine, up to the sea, the Adriatic one, the one north of Otranto, the one with the sandy coasts so to speak, and it does so, passing through the hinterland, through the Salento countryside, crossing the signs left by a thousand-year history of peoples who they have occurred in these lands since the Neolithic. Pedaling, you will pass by Menhirs and Dolmens of an age of which they are the only witnesses and you will cross unmistakable signs left by disappeared civilizations (Messapi), and then pedal on streets dug by the wheels of horse-drawn carts starting from the Roman period and then farmhouses and Medieval villages and fortified farms and woods from before agriculture.
Crossing olive groves and hills covered with Mediterranean scrub, the route will take you to the sea. Here, in Salento, the sea has a strange effect, the gaze extends far away, the eyes shine with light and warmth and the heart is filled with feeling and admiration. The sea, of this long journey, is the main actor, once encountered north of Otranto, it will accompany you to the head of Leuca and beyond, going up the peninsula to the marina of Ugento and Gallipoli where it will greet you, certain of being a goodbye, never a goodbye, because this sea remains inside your heart and on your skin with its scent of saltiness and infinity.
Leaving the sea, you take the road back which is always a little melancholy and this is how you will feel when you climb from the coast towards the hills, our «Serre Salentine», which will escort you to the starting point, a little sweet and a little arduous, with dry, short and hard tears almost as if you wanted to quickly reach the sky.
Riding the narrow streets of the greenhouses, on the back of a donkey, you will arrive at conquering Specchia, a perched city, defended by thick walls, and you will feel like you are entering it on your steed, with a sore shoulder just like after a long ride, but the attack is been launched and the city taken… and then away, away again, ever closer to the goal, and always towards a greenhouse, from where we salute his Madonna, with our gaze turned towards ever more distant horizons…
And finally down towards the plain, into the Paduli with its thousand-year-old trees and its labyrinthine streets from which it is difficult to escape without nostalgia mixed with a sense of peace and tranquility.
But in the meantime we have arrived, and after a greeting to the brightest light, Scorrano with its international Luminarie, we give ourselves a hug… tired, sweaty, hungry and thirsty… and let ourselves be pampered, refreshed and recharged until we become human again.
What a journey it has been!!! Millennia transformed into kilometres, the past crossed on a bike and a future full of intentions… Salento will be in my present again.
