Molise Trail 2026

The Molise Trail is a bikepacking crossing on the tratturi of southern Italy — the ancient droving roads of the transhumance, a UNESCO intangible heritage since 2019. A tratturo is not a trail: it is a road defined by law, up to 111 meters wide, cut so that flocks could move between Abruzzo and Puglia twice a year. Molise still holds 441 kilometers of them, touching more than seventy villages.

There is no timing, no ranking, no finishing order, and no mass start. Riders leave Petacciato, on the Adriatic coast, on 30 or 31 October, and have until 20:00 on 3 November to come back to it. How many days to take is the rider’s own decision: some close the short loop in two, some use all five and sleep in the villages.

Four loops, all starting and ending in Petacciato: roughly 200 km / 4,500 m, 300 km / 6,000 m, 400 km / 8,000 m, and an 85 km / 1,600 m day ride on 1 November. Roughly half of each loop is tarmac and the rest is grass tratturo and gravel — a tratturo is not a continuous path, it has been ploughed over, built on and lost in fields, and the tarmac is what stitches the network back together. It is a gravel or MTB route, not a road bike one and not an enduro one. Four base camps sit in villages along the way, where riders sleep and wash.

This year four village councils on the route — Sant’Elia a Pianisi, Torella del Sannio, Pietracatella and Frosolone — open their halls in the evening for whoever arrives by bike. It is not catering: the village associations cook their own dish, on their own shift. Second edition. Entries close on 1 October. The 85km day ride on November 1st has its own entry. Registration opens on October 5th and closes on October 27th.

Full route information in English: guide.molisetrail.it/en/