Stage 07 bike – Apricena – Monte Sant’Angelo

From Apricena, on flat country roads, you arrive at the San Marco in Lamis station, from where you join the Via Francigena and begin to climb up the side of the Gargano promontory, pass through the convent-sanctuary of Santa Maria di Stignano, continue on the SS 272, pass San Marco in Lamis, at the convent of St. Matteo Apostolo take the SP22, go back up the Gargano again, traveling through widely scenic stretches in the typical limestone environment of the promontory, until you descend again to San Giovanni Rotondo where the convents and shrines of Padrer Pietro of Pietrelcina are located and where the saint’s body is venerated, past which you travel eastward along a flat stretch, then face the long climb, first in dense forest and then in the open, in a grazing and bushy environment, to climb again to the top of the Gargano and reach the wonderful village of Monte Sant’Angelo, where the cave of the apparition of the archangel Michele, a UNESCO-protected site, marks the conclusion of the Cammino della Pace.