Lavern Subirats - Vilafranca del Penedès

This alternative stage takes you from the Lavern - Subirats train station to Vilafranca del Penedès, but it does so along the easternmost slope, crossing the plain of Sant Pere Molanta to the capital of Alt Penedès. It runs along farm tracks between vineyards and also some tracks through the many pine woods that populate the typical hills of the area. The landscape alternates the typical undulations of the central territory of the Penedès with the occasional ups and downs caused by the passage of the region's torrents.

You leave the train station and continue along a dirt track parallel to the AP-7 motorway, which is crossed by a bridge. Just after crossing this bridge, 200 m from this point, in the middle of a large vineyard, there is a wall, the only visible part of a Roman site called Torreta del Moro. Built with the Roman formwork system, it still preserves a small window. For gravel bikes, the route continues through the Torreta del Moro vineyard to the BV-2429. For walkers and mountain bikes, the route continues to the right, descending to a small stream and then ascending towards the hill of Les Carreroles. The hill, which is covered with pine trees, is reached by a fun single track that leads to the wide Bou plain. A few hundred metres to the left, next to the Sant Sebastià stream, there are remains that could be from an old Roman dam. On leaving the single track the view opens, letting you see the small village of Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs (Avinyonet del Penedès), there it stands out the Cal Bou farmhouse and the bell tower of the Romanesque monastery of Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs (11th century), which has an interesting cloister, unique in the Penedès, and of which only three galleries remain.

You leave the village on the BV-2429 road, which you leave immediately, turning left and then right to take a path through vineyards that leads to Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues. The gravel route continues along the BV-2429 to Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues. Next to the church of this town you can see a reproduction of the Via Augusta roadway. From Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues you can make a detour to visit the Font de la Canya Interpretation Centre in Avinyonet del Penedès. This Iberian archaeological site shows that wine-growing was already being practised in this area in the Iron Age. Nearby, in the village of Les Gunyoles, you can see a fortified tower of Roman origin (1st-2nd centuries AD).

Still among vineyards, you leave Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues to cross the N-340 through a tunnel and continue parallel to the Sant Marçal stream until you reach the cemetery of Sant Pere Molanta. You enter this part of the municipality of Olèrdola by crossing the BV-2415 road in the direction of the church of Sant Pere Molanta, which is on the outskirts of the village.

The route now crosses a continuous stretch of vineyards and, after passing the Romanesque chapel of Verge dels Horts, continues parallel to the C-15 road, crosses this road and the AP-7 motorway over bridges, and reaches Vilafranca along the Melió road.