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Celle di San Vito

An afternoon ride to a remote Italian village

By Mountain-Forecast.com

Celle di San Vito is a small village situated at 720m a.s.l. in the Dauni Mountains in SE Italy. As with many remote centres, Celle has a declining population of mostly elderly folk, and my visit temporarily increased this by +1.

Typical summer view of the Puglia countryside. Harvested fields, set alight leaving an acrid stench and adding to the heat

42°C and a Snow plough

I started in one slightly larger and livelier (by Puglia standards) town called Biccari. A steady climb which was quite a test of stamina in 42° C temperatures passed through Castelluccio Valmaggiore and then, bizarrely a retailer of snow ploughs, one of the line up of over 20 machines is shown below.

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Celle, visible only by its white Limestone fortified tower. A deep valley lies between this position and the destination

Lovely hairpins

You don’t have to go far in Italy before finding some impressive sets of bends. In the summer heat, tyres squeal on the shiny tarmac and it’s easy to come a cropper…

Made it to celle...

Old people wearing black perpetually sweeping their doorsteps and small dogs (probably the reason why the doorsteps need cleaning…)

Time for a selfie

My Italian road bike is a Condor Squadra. Tough enough to take everything that’s thrown at it, which happens quite often when sections of main road are washed away or suddenly become gravel.

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Pausing to take on water in Castellucio on the way back. Wall mural, real bike in case you didn't guess

Taking it easy...

A lot of rides, with Strava ticking away on the GPS, become focused on performance, times, segments etc. It’s nice therefore to abolish this pressure by carrying a decent camera (I use a Fujifilm X-T1 with 27mm prime lens for this trip), and getting off to absorb the views and culture whenever you feel the urge.

Final Stats:

Although cycling is a major sport in Italy and in some parts the sheer number of cyclists out on the roads is astonishing, on this trip I had it all to myself… Total distance: 33.6km, 670m of ascending. Click photo to view activity on Strava