Via Ellenica 2025

ITALY.

Via Ellenica hike (Brindisi to Matera).
3rd Section: Castellaneta to Matera (the last 4 hiking days).

22/Apr/2025 to 25/Apr/2025.

Four remaining sections of the Via Ellenica.

Itinerary:

Castellaneta - Laterza - Ginosa - Montescaglioso - Matera

(Previously: Brindisi - Serranova - Carovigno - Ostuni - Cisternino - Locorotondo - Alberobello - Martina-Franca - Crispiano - Massafra - Mottola - Castellaneta).

CLICK HERE for the 1st part (4 hiking days, from Brindisi to Cisternino)

CLICK HERE for the 2nd part (7 hiking days, from Cisternino to Castellaneta)

Detailed weather forecast
(as on Sunday 20, Easter).

Monday 21/Apr/2025.
Home to Castellaneta journey.

Flight announcement Marseille - Bari.

Boarding the plane for Bari.

Bari.

Bari, San Nicola.

Train from Bari to Castellaneta.

Castellaneta.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castellaneta

At the B&B a particular attention to
the Via Ellenica hikers.

Rudolph Valentino museum.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_Valentino

Mural "La Dolce Vita",
scene from the Valentino movie.

Valentino monument,
scene from "The king of Persia".

Lent tradition in Castellaneta:
the seven dolls (one per week).

The Seven Dolls of Lent.

The custom, widespread in Puglia, of hanging with a string on the street of each district, and then only on the main street, seven little black cloth dolls, each representing a Sunday of Lent (which, in fact, are seven). Each little doll had the appearance of a nun. Every Sunday one was removed. Halfway through the Lenten period, since it was not possible to remove a whole doll, the fourth was cut, leaving the other half hanging on the rope. “ Dumench se segh la monch ” (On Sunday the nun is cut). Tradition had it that by sawing the nun, all the austerities of the Lenten period were interrupted and the feast was prepared.

Good Friday procession.

Transportation:

---- Shuttle bus from the P+R parking to the airport

---- Ryanair flight FR8152 from Marseille (MRS) to Bari (BRI), 09:15-10:55, 1h40, 247€ return incl backpack.

---- City bus 16, from the airport to Bari, 1.00€.
---- Trenitalia train for Taranto, from Bari-Centrale to Castellaneta, 14:40-15:35, 6.80€.

|---| B&B Japp'ca Japp'ca, room, Castellaneta, 50€ incl breakfast.

Tuesday 22/Apr/2025.
HIKE 1 (#12 of the Via Ellenica).
From Castellaneta to Laterza, 24.5km, +783m, -687m.
https://camminomaterano.it/tappa/48/

This is one of the most fascinating stages of the entire walk for the extraordinary variety of environments and landscapes that you cross. You leave Castellaneta walking, among expanses of olive trees, along a series of roads and paths that lead to the Montecamplo nature reserve: a beautiful forest of oaks, downy oaks, thorny oaks, holm oaks and Aleppo pines. In this thick scrub and in the nearby farms, numerous bandits found refuge in the 19th century, whose stories still survive in these places today. The path then climbs the hill offering wide views that range from the Gulf of Taranto to Basilicata, up to the Calabrian mountains. You cross a vast area completely covered with Mediterranean scrub and medicinal plants to finally take an extraordinary path that runs for several kilometers along the edge of the Laterza ravine, one of the largest canyons in Europe with walls over 200 meters high: a wonderful natural paradise, vast and uncontaminated, reveals itself to our eyes, giving us breathtaking landscapes and views at every step. After passing the Lipu Oasis, you soon reach Laterza.

Leaving Castellaneta.

Purchase of a Focaccia for picnic.

San Michele Arcangelo.

Chiesa e convento di San Francesco.

Abandoned railway viaduct,
now a bicycle road.

Snake.

Masseria Giacola.

Antica chiesetta dell' Addolorata.

Laterza.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterza,_Apulia

I'll send you a kiss with the wind,

and I know you'll hear it.

You'll turn around without seeing me,

but I'll be there.

[Pablo Neruda]

Dinner substitute.

|---| B&B Iris, room, Laterza, 49.50€ incl breakfast.

Wednesday 23/Apr/ 2025.

HIKE 2 (#13 of the Via Ellenica).

From Laterza to Ginosa, 16km, +253m, -341m.

https://camminomaterano.it/tappa/49/

From Laterza the walk continues on country roads immersed in olive trees that accompany us to the pine forest of Murgia San Pellegrino, an area crossed for millennia by shepherds who, in transhumance, pushed from Basilicata to the plains of Taranto. The last kilometers of the stage take place inside the ravine of Ginosa, in a wild setting in which the hand of nature and that of man have harmoniously blended since prehistoric times: in fact, you walk right in the riverbed between the high rocky walls and the lush vegetation. The traveler is welcomed in Ginosa by an extraordinary complex of rock villages, called Casale and Rivolta, characterized by a large number of cave-houses arranged on multiple levels connected by stairs and paths: the two villages were inhabited until the first half of the 20th century and preserve traces of ancient and recent life.

Leaving the B&B.

Building a panino.

Stop, look at me. Laugh, I am with you.

Life is a gift, defend it, don't waste it.

Ginosa.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginosa

Norman castle.

Torre del Orologio,
the Clock tower.

|---| B&B Casa Elisabetta, room, Ginosa, 56.40€.

Thursday 24/Apr/2025.

HIKE 3 (#14 of the Via Ellenica).

From Ginosa to Montescaglioso, 14.7km, +~400m, -~300m.

https:https://camminomaterano.it/tappa/51/

One of the most beautiful stages of the Via Ellenica! We will leave Ginosa along a stretch of its ravine and admire the wonderful rocky scenery, the Mother Church and the villages dug into the rock. Continuing we will immerse ourselves in a surprising landscape characterized by vast hills cultivated with wheat and interspersed with groves of pines, oaks and Mediterranean scrub. A series of paths wind through the heart of this landscape: after having forded a small stream we will walk through lush vegetation to then reach the foot of the high hill (350 meters) on which Montescaglioso stands, one of the treasures of Basilicata so much so that in 2012 it earned the denomination of "Jewel of Italy". A panoramic path immersed in a forest, climbs the hill and leads to the gates of the city and the wonderful Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo.

Sandstone quarry.

Masseria.

Reaching Montescaglioso.

Montescaglioso.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montescaglioso

Piazza del Popolo.

Bar Barlume: the best Campari-Spritz,
at 5.00€ also the cheapest.

Piazza Roma, devoted to
San Rocco di Montpellier.

Abbazia di San Michele Arcangelo.

|---| B&B My Home 1922, apartment, Montescaglioso, 58€.

Friday 25/Apr/2025.
Hike 4 (#15 of the Via Ellenica).

From Montescaglioso to Matera, 18.5km, +467m).

A beautiful district leads into the Lucanian hills, characterized by expanses of arable land and olive groves, while majestic birds of prey circle in the skies accompanying the traveler for much of the stage. For a few kilometers you walk along a suggestive path that runs close to the ravine of Matera: a deep canyon dotted with cave-houses and rock churches reveals itself to the view of the traveler. The arrival in Matera takes place from the Casalnuovo district: a narrow passage dug into the rock leads to the presence of the extraordinary and ancestral beauty of the Sassi that constitute the destination of the walk.