Where these tracks come from
This site holds 60 tracks across Puglia and Basilicata, 1,337 km in total. They were collected in two different ways, and the difference matters when you plan a ride.
The two badges
We planned 17 of these routes on a map, using OpenStreetMap data and a routing engine. Nobody from SalentoBike has ridden them end to end. The distance is accurate. The elevation is interpolated from a terrain model, not measured.
A road that OpenStreetMap shows as quiet can turn out to carry lorries. We publish these routes because they are useful, and we label them so you can judge for yourself.
The other 43 tracks are real GPS recordings from the personal archive of Eugenio Tommasi. A device recorded them while somebody moved along the ground, so the line follows a path that exists.
31 of the recorded tracks are walking stages of the Via Francigena del Sud. They were walked, not cycled. Some sections cross fields, farm tracks or steps.
Most of the distance is rideable on a gravel bike. Read the warnings on each route page, and use the filter to hide walking stages if you want cycling routes only.
What we leave empty
Surface, difficulty and the date of the last check are often blank. That is deliberate. We fill those fields after riding a route ourselves, and until then the page says Not verified yet.
Guessing a surface from a map is how a road bike ends up on 8 km of loose gravel. We would rather leave the field empty.
Privacy of the recordings
We removed the timestamps from every file before publishing. A GPS recording otherwise shows the exact date, time and speed of a real person, and none of that helps you ride the route.
The tracks you download keep coordinates and elevation, and nothing else. We also simplify the geometry shown on the map, which is why the public line has fewer points than the file.
Why the GPX files are for our customers
The maps, the elevation profiles and the warnings are open to everyone, with no account and no email address. The GPX files go to people who hire a bike from us.
Preparing this archive took months of riding, cleaning and checking. Hiring a bike is what pays for it. If you have hired from us, enter the phone number you booked with and every file on the site opens.
Credits and licence
- Routing data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Map tiles come from CyclOSM and OpenTopoMap, under their own licences.
- GPS tracks come from the personal archive of Eugenio Tommasi.
- The official waymarked route of the Via Francigena del Sud belongs to AEVF, the Associazione Europea delle Vie Francigene. Our tracks are not the official route.
- Tracks are provided for guidance only, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Check the road ahead of you, not the line on the screen.
If a track no longer matches the ground, tell us what you found and when. We publish the correction with your note and the date.