From Lecce to Torre dell’Orso by bike: thirty flat kilometres to the sea

There are mornings when the old town, with its golden façades and shaded courtyards, asks for a break. All it takes is a bicycle to discover that the sea is far closer to Lecce than it seems: under thirty kilometres, almost all of them flat, without a single climb worth the name. You leave the city after breakfast and reach Torre dell’Orso in time for a first swim, in front of pale sand and the twin cliffs that close the bay.

Nothing has to go in the car

The good thing about starting here is that the day begins on the pavement outside the front door. Within minutes the city thins out, roundabouts give way to country roads and then to white lanes between dry-stone walls. The traffic disappears before your legs have even warmed up, and from there on you ride mostly in the company of olive trees alone.

The countryside starts right behind the city

Merine, Vanze, Pisignano: small villages, a square with a church and a bar, low whitewashed houses. This is the stretch where you understand that Salento is not only coastline. Halfway along, it is worth a two-kilometre detour to Acaya, one of the few fortified villages in Puglia left intact, its castle, gate and moat still in place. Twenty extra minutes that are worth the whole day.

The castle at Acaya, two kilometres off the route.

Where the fields turn to water

A little further on you skirt the Cesine nature reserve, a belt of ponds, reed beds and pinewood that the Adriatic left behind the dunes. Herons live here, and flamingos in spring, and on a bicycle the silence registers in a way it never does from a car. Then the road turns, a coastal watchtower appears, and all at once there is the sea.

The coast road is the reward

From Torre Specchia Ruggeri onwards you ride with the water on your left for nearly ten kilometres. You pass through San Foca, with its small harbour and its first swimmers, and reach Roca Vecchia, where it is worth getting off the saddle: the Grotta della Poesia is a natural pool carved out of the rock, its walls covered in Messapian and Latin inscriptions, and it remains one of the most photographed places on this coast.

Arriving, and getting back

The last two kilometres run along the pine wood and end at Torre dell’Orso, in front of the Due Sorelle, the two sea stacks that legend says are two girls who dived in together. Anyone still game carries on another kilometre and a half to Torre Sant’Andrea, wilder and less crowded. For the way back there are three options: ride the same road again in the cool of the late afternoon, take the local bus, or arrange to be picked up by van.

The Grotta della Poesia, shortly before the finish.

The right season runs from March to June and from September to November, when the coast road is clear and the light is low. You do not need a road bike: a city bike or an e-bike is plenty, because the whole day adds up to a few dozen metres of climbing. All you need is water, a hat, and the willingness to stop often.

Route and GPX track by Apulia Bike Tours, a local cycling holiday operator in Puglia.