Starting from the beautiful Romanesque Cathedral in Ruvo di Puglia, walk along the narrow streets in the historic centre to arrive to Piazza Bovio; from here, take Via Madonna delle Grazie that leads you out of the town. Once you’ve crossed the overpass, turn down the first road on the left, which will lead you to a junction where you need to take the road on the right, called Via Appia Traiana: from here, wayfarers pick up the ancient traces of the Via Traiana (the reference to “Appia” is incorrect). This marks the start of a long, straight path, mostly unpaved, framed by small dry stone walls and olive groves; after approximately 1.5 km, you’ll reach a crossroads with a stone arch: turn left and you can go on a detour to reach the town of Terlizzi. The path, on the other hand, continues straight along a dirt road dotted with rural structures and an extremely important archaeological site: a stretch of the original paved road of the Via Traiana. After about 4.5 km, you can make another detour to the left to reach the village of Sovereto. Head straight, among the olive groves, for another 8 km until you reach a crossroads where you need to be particularly careful: you need to cross the provincial road and take the Via Traiana that leads to the historic centre of Bitonto and the magnificent St. Valentine’s Cathedral, which is where this leg comes to an end.
For those who wish to break up this leg of the journey, or who would simply like to visit two of the places with the closest links to medieval pilgrimages in the area around Bari, it is possible to take an alternative route heading north and arrive to the town of Terlizzi, where you’ll find the “Santa Maria di Cesano” complex and the church of Sovereto. From here, you can nonetheless reach the city of Bitonto by simply picking up the main route heading south.