375km Cammino di San Tommaso — Where my wheels go

The Cammino di San Tomasso

A 375km off-road route across the Apennines from ROME TO ORTONA.
Whole route overview
For a ‘Grand Depart’, the backdrop of St. Peter’s Basilica set against an Italian denim blue sky, is about as good as any place of departure can be. The pedal out of Rome on the basalt sets of the via Appia Antica, one of Rome’s great highways, and riding past the great monuments of another age, is just the first of many thrills on Europe’s newest Camminos, the Cammino di San Tommaso. Ahead of you are the wild and empty heartlands of Central Italy, where nature’s works are as captivating in their beauty as the works of man are in Rome. As you journey across the peninsula, you ride into the caldera of an extinct volcano, climb unimaginably steep hillsides studded with grey-green olive trees before rising up into the wild and remote Apennines where ancient monasteries cling to sheer rock faces in defiance of any gravitational pull. The mountains are largely the preserve of animals - deer, boar, wolves and bear to name the headline group - and their rugged and often demanding presence makes for memorable riding. From the high altitude plains, famed for their ancient grains and saffron, you ride down the other side of the mountain chain towards the sea. Along the way are some of Italy’s most venerated and most curious religious objects; the UNESCO world heritage frescos in the Church of Mary of the Assumption, Bominaco, (as fresh today as when they were painted in the 12th century), Italy’s latest saint, embalmed in a glass case, and the Face of Christ, miraculously imprinted on a piece of cloth, are each worth a stop. The final section through the rolling wine country of Chieti province and past the Cantina Dora Sarchese where a free glass of the local Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is given to passing pilgrims. The tomb of St. Thomas, one of Christ’s disciples, marks the official end of the Cammino, but a few metres further on, beside an impressive Aragonese castle, is the shore of the Adriatic Sea and the true end to an extraordinary journey.