The feasibility intuition to use the water of Sele river in the attempt of trying to solve the dramatic lack of drinking water in the South of Italy Apulia Region dates back to the beginning of the past century (1906) when at a certain point it was decided to start the construction of a grandiose waterworks capable to reverse the sense of the river flow making it ending up to the Adriatic instead of the Tyrrhenian sea.
In the reality, yet nowadays, the river still continues its natural run towards the Tyrrhenian even though its main sources located in the Municipality of Caposele in the Province of Avellino are almost completely diverted to feed the Apulian Aqueduct down to Santa Maria di Leuca located at the bottom tip of the “heel” in the province of Lecce.
The project of the cycle path of the Apulian Aqueduct is a 500 km long cycle route that follows two main historic Aqueduct branches: the Principal Canal from Caposele to Villa Castelli in the Province of Brindisi that in only nine years spent for its construction (1906- 1915) managed to get the water till Bari and the Lecce Great Siphon that from the end point of the first waterworks could reach Santa Maria di Leuca where the infrastructure is celebrated with a monumental waterfall built in 1939. This is a unique "narrative itinerary" that crosses three regions of Southern Italy (Campania, Basilicata and Puglia), linking some of the most fascinating and little-valued places on the peninsula: Alta Irpinia, Vulture Melfese, Alta Murgia, Valle d'Itria, Terra d'Arneo and the hinterland of Salento.

Some more pictures and trip details HERE

Again an interesting contribution - thank you. I have already visited the area close to the starting point of this track. However, I do not know the heel of the "Italian boot".

Thanks for presenting this interesting route. I remember the water breaking out of the stones at the coastline south of the Tyrrhenian Sea. I never thought that some of this water is transported through an aquaduct to Puglia. Well, I never touched Puglia on my Great Italy tour in 2006, maybe because there are less mountains. If you stay on the main chain of the Appennino, there is no lack of water until the very south, even Aspromonte mountains are full of water fountains. I hope, once more to visit south of Italy, covering parts of Puglia, too. Until today, I just taste Puglia wine to find in German supermarkets, with intensive, but fruity character.