Introdution to Rally 2024:
The 2024 Rally returns to the sunny lands of Southern Italy, where the sea breeze blows over the infinite expanses of olive trees and vineyards, the blinding white lime covers the small houses, the ancient villages are a treasure chest of popular traditions lost elsewhere. An itinerary to discover the testimonies of the Norman Swabian era, and the legacy of Frederick II of Swabia, the "Stupor Mundi" who left his legacy of Castles and Fortified Farms in these lands and throughout Southern Italy, like Castel del Monte, a unique masterpiece of medieval architecture, an architectural synthesis of cultural elements from Europe, the Muslim world and classical antiquity.
From the expanses of olive trees in the Itria Valley in Puglia, through the UNESCO sites of Alberobello and Castel del Monte, to the remote hills of Daunia, up to Basilicata region , with a stop at the "Sassi" of Matera (UNIESCO Heritage), the canyons of the Gravine, the archaeological sites of Grumentum and Metaponto, evidence of the settlements of Magna Graecia. In the land of wines and Masserie there will be no shortage of tastings in the cellar, folkloristic hospitality to the rhythm of "pizzica" and "taranta", traditional dances.
Event Characteristics
Start: 20th End: 28th September 2024
7 Overnights (full hospitality): 4/5**** Hotels
Participation fee: write us
Start Venue /End Venue: Fasano (Brindisi)
Vehicle Eligibility: built from 1918 to 1969
Length of route: 1000 km approx.
Navigation: TULIP Road book
Daily mileage: 120 Km approx.
Highlights
Puglia - Valle d'Itria end the Daunia Mountains
The Itria Valley, or Trulli Valley, where every town, every village of white buildings is surrounded by a magical atmosphere. A mandatory stop is Alberobello with its trulli (UNESCO World Heritage List). We will cross the countryside and expanses of olive trees and the villages of Cisternino and Locorotondo, among the most beautiful villages in Italy. We will not miss a "journey to the center of the earth", to the Castellana Caves.
Ostuni, the White city" and Poligano a Mare
We will visit the "White City" of Ostuni, nestled on the three hills, with its historic center full of narrow streets and shops and its fifteenth-century Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, with the majestic late-Gothic façade and the superb rose window, the largest in 'Europe. Another stop in the historic center of Polignano a Mare, the homeland of Domenico Modugno, to sing “Volare!” together. in a dense network of dirt roads overlooking the sea, between flowered balconies and poems, which lead to Lama Monachile, a sandy strip squeezed between two high cliffs.
Matera and "Little Dolomites"
Matera, a miracle of time where the Sassi, caves dug into the mountain where the population lived until the 1950s, represent an example of a thousand-year-old way of life to be preserved and handed down to posterity, entered into the World Heritage List, and the backdrop to numerous films, from "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson, to 007. We will visit the Gravine, spectacular canyons with hundreds of rock churches, places of worship dug into the rock, with finds from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages.
