The best cycling routes around Gissi

coming from north to south, the green route was interrupted by a landslide in the Mottagrossa section (after the Sinello river towards the reserve). this route includes dirt roads (mostly beaten dirt), asphalt roads and only one irregular dirt climb of medium difficulty that the less experienced can easily do by hand without swearing. recommended for cycle tourists

the landslide along the greenway in mottagrossa forces a detour. the alternative route includes beaten dirt and asphalt. a climb on dirt of medium difficulty. for some manageable by hand without problems

In Casalbordino they await the completion of the Via Verde of the Costa dei Trabocchi. The cycle/pedestrian path, opened in parts last year, will finally arrive in Casalbordino Lido.

From here you can see the lower part of Val Sinello and your gaze is lost towards the mountains, in front the Majella Massif, on the right the Gran Sasso Massif with Monte Camicia and at the bottom even further to the right the Monti Gemelli della Laga.

Once you reach the top of the hill that leads to the center of the village, the town hall square welcomes you.

The basilica is located in Miracoli, in the municipality of Casalbordino. It is built in a neo-Renaissance style and dates back to the 16th century. It is the destination of a pilgrimage (from 9 to 11 June). The Abruzzese poet Gabriele D'Annunzio describes it in his novel "The Triumph of Death".

Despite the cemetery, despite the radio repeaters, what you see from this vantage point is truly fantastic. On clear days the gaze extends from the Matese mountains to the Gran Sasso and beyond.

According to oral tradition, it seems that San Michele, who left from the East to defeat paganism, stopped in a wood near Liscia before arriving on the Gargano; this wood is located around Monte Sorbo, an area that in ancient times had a high anthropic density, as can be seen from the remarkable archaeological material found here and coming from Italic tombs. Still on the subject of legend, it is said that a man from Palmoli, a village in the upper Vasto bordering Liscia, intent on grazing cows near the Treste river, noticed that a young bull got lost every day and then returned in the evening. One day, however, the farmer, intrigued by this mysterious behavior, decided to follow his animal and saw that the vegetation opened up, as if by magic, as it passed, as if to indicate a direction to follow; this strange path led him to a cave where he saw the bull kneeling in front of a wooden image of St. Michael the Archangel, which miraculously made water gush out so that man could quench his thirst and recover from the discovery to witness this event supernatural. In memory of these events that occurred in Liscia, the Marquesses of Avalos, in the eighteenth century incorporated the cave inside a small church, perhaps, to regulate the large influx of pilgrims who are here recalled by popular devotion to the Archangel Michael, a cult that is lost in the mists of time.