Generally, I planned the first days or actually weeks to be not too hard. Between 50 and 80 kilometers. I'm not super trained at the moment and had actually quite a bad cold before leaving. The starting point was the very south beginning of the Eurovelo 5, in Brindisi. The goal was to get to Grottaglie where I had a room booked. I planned to have two stops. One in Mesagne and one in Oria. To get some coffee and some food.
I was a bit worried about the quality of the bike routes and the roads that I would use. Overall, they were pretty good. There was never any moment where I was worried about traffic or where I had to push my bike on foot. There were even some signs for the Via Appia. I did not need them though specifically as I had everything mapped out via Komoot and was using their app on my Garmin. Orientation was super simple.
Oria was a really cute little town. Super clean and picturesque, on a little hill. In the city, I did actually get lost and had to push the bike a bit around, but it was worthwhile.
