It was a foggy morning for my last 6am walk around Locorotondo so I was extra careful watching for traffic. I didn’t want to end up back in the thorns!

Our next stop on the cycling tour was Nardo and this was around a 2 hour drive from Locorotondo. The cyclist were doing the whole journey on their bikes making this their biggest day of cycling for the tour.

Nardo is located on the Mediterranean side of Puglia and is more known for its grapes than olives. It sits around 5 km inland at an elevation of just 40 feet, with the whole area being rather flat, and I do wonder how they will fare during future climate change if sea levels keep rising.

Our non cycling group arrived to the accommodation at around 11 but we weren’t able to check into our rooms until around 3 pm.

Our first activity for the day involved a slight change to the itinerary and was a 1.5 hour guided walk around the small town of Nardo. Our guide, Maria, was most well informed and took us through the Cathedral, the small main town square and the Aragonese 15th Century Castle; pointing out lots of detail along the way.

It was lunch time by the end of our tour and so we left Maria at the main square and stopped for lunch at one of the cafes.

I have to admit that I lost concentration about 15 minutes from the end of our tour as I remembered that I had forgotten to remove my phone charger and adapter from the wall at the hotel we had left this morning. The problem of sourcing a replacement iPhone charger and adapter consumed most of my thought through the rest of the tour.

We drifted back to our Nardo accommodation and were then able to access our rooms. The boutique hotel is set within a most grand building, which had been a monastery and a palace in its former life, and so it was hardly surprising to find our room was enormous. It was just a pity we only had a one night stay here.

With the help of lovely Sara on the front desk, I was able to source a venue that opened before 5pm so that i could purchase a new iPhone charger. Our group then reconvened in the foyer at 5.15 pm for a walk to visit a local winery and then on to dinner. The major wines down here are Negromano and Primitivo; both of which we like.

Next stop on the cycle tour is Otranto, back on the Adriatic side of Puglia.