187km Between the mountains and the sea
The Vineyards of Abruzzo
Ride overview
There is another land ripe for exploration and adventure when the mountains are out of bounds - the hills of Chieti’s wine province. This coastal two/three day route over the vine-covered hills from Francavilla-al-Mare to Vasto and back along the cycle path beside the sea, is no lesser ride for forsaking the mountains. With its varied scenery, its challenging hills, gravel tracks through the vineyards and its relaxing return along the jewel in the Abruzzi Cycling Crown - the traffic-free Via Verde, its a ride which combines physical challenge with sensual pleasure. There are miles of public beaches free from the raucous concessions, which seem to beg you to stop and bathe in the limpid waters of the Adriatic.
There’s history, art and culture and this being Italy, great food and wine all along the route. From Francavilla-al-Mare’s avant-garde architecture to Ortona’s Aragonese Castle, to the Roman ruins at Vasto, there’s much to see. For re-fuelling you can take you pick from the many seaside trattorias, or try a gourmet feast on a traboccho. You won’t go hungry, nor thirsty.
This ride combines several stages which form part of the 300km ‘Rete Ciclabile dei Trabocchi, a network of 15 unconnected routes through the vineyards and along the coast.
Ride practicalities
This adventure ride is best suited for a gravel bikeAvoid riding through the vineyards after heavy rain. The mud will clog your wheels and bring to a halt.
START/FINISH: Francavilla-al-Marie DISTANCE: 187km TOTAL ASCENT: 2489m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: mixed surfaces including rough farm tracks through the vineyards, many winding back country lanes, some short sections of busy road (SS16) and the beautifully smooth traffic-free cycleway, The Via Verde FOOD AND DRINK: Lanciano; Cottabo, Vasto; Hostaria del Pavone, Piccolo Bistro (superb breakfast) San Vito Chietino; Bottega Culinaria, Langolo da Filippo Ortona; Trabocco Mucchiola ACCOMMODATION; Vasto; Casa Ocra MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Francavilla-al-Mare, Vasto-San Salvo, Casalbordino-Pollutri Torino di Sangro, Ortona, LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: Rete Ciclabile dei Trabrocchi, The Abruzzo Coast, Winter on the Trabbochi Coast, Vineyard Vestments
Ride Notes
You only have a couple of kilometres to immerse yourself in the loud delights of an Adriatic beach resort, before heading out to the hills. Francavilla-al-Mare is everything that popular imagination connects with Italy’s Adriatic Coast; beaches are filled with colourful sun-umbrellas and loungers, bars bash out Euro-pop on giant speakers. Wafts of ‘frittura msita’ hang heavily in the air.
Once released into the hills, you ride past gated villas surrounded by grain fields, olive groves and vineyards. In the far distance the magnificent Maiella mountains, in the middle distance, the many hill top towns crowned with a church spire surrounded by a maze of Medieval buildings. Beside you, vines growig on pergolas and lines of twisted olive trees. As you venture inland, you notice a harmony between nature and the agriculture: fauna as well as flora, flourish.
A gravel track through the hills of Abruzzo
In spring, the holes in the cliffs on the upper slopes of the hills are filled with sand martins’ nests. Rock doves purr, warblers sing their throaty songs, swallows skim the roads. Ride in the height of summer and the countryside is stilled by great heat. You’ll find lizards basking in the road, harmless black whip snakes sinuously sliding away as you curve around a bend. Autumn is more coloured than Joseph’s coat. Come in winter when the tracks are dry, there’s silence of a different kind, winter crisp and cold, the country cloaked in rich browns and greys. Just avoid the times after heavy rain for the mud will clog your wheels and will bring you to a terrible halt.
Summer snow - poplar seeds cover the farm tracks
It’s a restless ride. There’s no settling into a steady rhythm: the hills are plentiful and steep, often 20% or more. No sooner have your hurtled down into a wild-wooded, humid valley, minding the gravel and the dried mud on the corners as you go, when you’re flicking through the gears and heading upwards again. Gravel tracks which cut through the vineyards link deserted country roads. This is Abruzzo, not Tuscany, so the tracks are roughly stoned and muddy after rain. Some are so steep (and short) that hike-a-bike is the only way up.
After 50km you’re in Lanciano, an historic crossroads and a gracious town with devilishly large flagstones which shake every screw on the bike. If hunger has knocked you, try Cottabo in the centre of town for a fine lunch.
Genesta and the vine-clad hills of southern Abruzzo
Heading southwards from Lanciano, the hills become more gentle, and less numerous too. But there’s still plenty of challenge ahead and the views across to the sea on one side and the mountains on the other, continue. The rolling hills are lined with vines, and in spring heads of wheat ripple in the wind. The country seems luscious and soft, whereas in summer the land is baked brown and grey and appears severe and harsh. But this too has its magic when the red kites track you from the sky and the land seems otherwise devoid of life. From Scerni, the landscape becomes more open, the fields bigger, grain and grass replace the vines. The riding is less intense, there’s more road and less gravel, more down than up as you head towards the coast.
After 140km of mixed surface riding and wonderful panoramas of hills and of distant mountains, you finally reach the sea and join the Pista Ciclabile Adriatica, a largely traffic-free cycle path along the Abruzzi coast. Once past the condominiums and hotels of San Salvo, the route briefly leaves the coast and rides up into the richly historical city of Vasto. The town, as well as being very likeable is a good place to stay. Choose between standard seaside hotels, or up in the old town with characterful apartments, such as Casa Ocra.
From Vasto, the ride uses a mix of road and track as it heads to the pencil-thin lighthouse on Punta Penna and the port of Vasto. From here around the great curve of bay, you ride through the first of several nature reserves on unpaved tracks and over the headland of Punta Aderci. Continuing northwards, you ride past deserted white pebble beaches, the very antithesis of the traditional image of what an Adriatic beach looks like. No umbrellas and loungers and the only music is that of the waves.
An Adriatic beach, near Lido di Casalbordino
After Lido di Casalbordino, there’s an annoying stretch of busy road to negotiate, before you arrive on the Via Verde, the jewel in the Abruzzi Cycling Crown. Trattorie, bars and hired bikes become more the norm. As do the sixteen trabbochi, the fishing platforms which characterise this part of the coast. Built to save fishermen from braving the wild seas, the spider-webbed platforms are used to manoeuvre a net into the water without the need to risk life and limb in a bucking boat. Today, the trabocchi thrive as tourist restaurants.
The route of the 2023 Giro d'Italia
The section from Fossacesia to Ortona was used for the 2023 Giro d’Italia’s time trial. You’ll have more time than Filippo Ganna to enjoy the seaside views and the climb up to Ortona’s Aragonese fort. From the attractive town, paved with shiny limestone flagstones and filled with artisanal gelatarie, you again ride on the busy SS16 road for another few kilometres. Once back beside the sea, there are various excellent, small public beaches such as Ripari, as well as several small family orientated beach concessions such as La Combusiere, fondly known as ‘Tomato Beach’ due to the fields of tomatoes which once grew around it.
The final pedal strokes take you back into the ‘other’ Adriatic coastal experienc: beach concessions, crowded beaches, over amplified Euro-pop and exuberant seaside life. And naturally enough, plenty of very good restaurants in which to recover from this vine and coast
Every route on this website has been carefully researched as well as ridden. However situations on the ground can change quickly. If you know of changes to this route, or cafes, pubs and the like which you think other cyclists need to know about, feel free to share your thoughts below.
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