October 10, 2021 to November 5, 2021
Sicily, complete with hurricane
Palermo - Zingaro Nature Reserve - Trapani - Marsala - Selinunte - Sciacca - Agrigento - Ragusa - Modica - Pozzallo - Noto - Siracusa - Catania - Bronte - Taormina - Catania
Sicily with its abundance of culture and natural beauty has been on our radar for a long time. What delayed us was the very mixed reviews we heard and saw. As we found out, these reviews were a lot more accurate than the weather forecasts that changed daily and still didn’t get it right.
While the architectural and cultural remains of millennia are exciting and the scenery that spans from the bucolic to the dramatic is a joy to behold, there are also stretches that have an abundance of rubbish along the roadsides.
By the time we arrived in Palermo, we had a 36-hour train and ferry combo behind us. Since we both love trains and at least Kurt loves ferry’s, we gave this surface mode of travel a go, but came to the conclusion, that this was a bit too much just to replace 3 hours flight or 15 hours on a multitude of trains.
Palermo did not disappoint. In fact, if we ever wanted to learn Italian, this city would be a place we could do it. While the city started as a little Phoenician trading post, it rose to prominence under the Arab rule. Later the Normans built their castles, churches, and palaces under the influence of Arab tastes.
Like the whole island Palermo has a history of succeeding rulers, starting with Phoenician and later Greek colonies. Cartago and Rome fought bitterly over this fertile breadbasket, Vandals, Byzantines, and Arab rule followed before Norman mercenaries decided to fight for themselves and settle in their newly founded kingdom. After their line of rulers came to an end, Swabian and French kings came and went before a side arm of the house of Aragon took over. They stayed in power until Garibaldi captured it for modern Italy.
That’s the history in a nutshell. If that doesn’t make you dizzy, the array of their left behind monuments will.
Having seen a fair share of the sights we cycled to the Zingaro Nature reserve. Protected as the last bit of pristine Sicilian coast, it offers lovely hikes with spectacular sights. On the way there we encountered a few short stretches of garbage along the road and a first savage downpour that turned roads into rivers. Luckily, our day hiking the reserve was graced with glorious sunshine.
Darina’s fascination with tiny houses and abandoned places brought us to a former agricultural village built into a cave entrance near modern Cornino. What was more interesting, was the way there and out. Komoot sent us through the least ridable shortcut ever. We were lugging our bikes for 2 km’s through a marble quarry wasteland cum river. We could easily have cycled 10 km around it in less time. The proposed way out was a recently constructed bicycle path along the coast. It was only marginally better than the quarry shortcut, so we went back to the road. Trapani had another downpour to offer while Darina spent some €uros on yellow socks in Decathlon. The socks could have been the highlight of the day (they definitely highlight her feet) but in the nearby Salinas we found heaps of Flamingos wading through the brine. Thus, optically energized we made it to the beautiful town of Marsala where we found a cosy room and a wonderful feed (somethings seldom change)
A beautiful day’s ride got us to the ruins of Selinunte, a Greek colony of 100000 inhabitants dating back to the 7th century BC. A reconstructed temple named E is the main attraction but there would be enough material to build another few.
A short day to Sciacca followed. Here we admired a few more palaces and street art aimed at uplifting the less maintained parts of the old town.
From Sciacca on we had a busy main road for about 20 km. after that we went inland and encountered loads of roads with no bicycle signs. We did find out, that they didn’t make any sense at all, Kurt’s guess is that they came cheap if you ordered a few dozens. We even entered Agrigento on such a road for lack of an alternative, so did numerous local cyclists.
Like Selinunte, this was a Greek colony, except it was twice the size and had its short life in the 5th century BC. Unlike Selinunte, here you had a lively town to stroll through after a day of templing around.
Now to the saddest stretch of road. From Agrigento until short before Ragusa is so littered, we both contemplated going home or somewhere nice. An idea we never entertained in all our years of travel. We did try to explain it, understand the (lack of) reason behind it, even (unsuccessfully) excuse it, in the end we decided to just state the fact and put a few pictures. Please don’t despair, a lot of beauty is just a scroll away.
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The towns of Ragusa, Modica, Noto et.al. were all flattened by a powerful earthquake in 1693. They all got rebuilt in a local baroque style, and they all are a sight to behold. If you feel like spending time somewhere beautiful, research the getting there and away and go for it.
Syracuse is another former Greek colony. The mightiest of all with half a million inhabitants in 300 BC. Today it’s still a pleasant town with a great natural harbour and a medieval old town incorporating ancient walls and columns. We had a fierce headwind getting there and learned that a Medicane (Mediterranean hurricane) was approaching fast. Non-essential shops, museums even trains and busses were shut down.
For us it was easy enough, we could stay another 3 days in our appartement because the touristy merry go round was stopped. We did replan the rest of our trip since we missed out on some days and dried our shoes and socks a few times. Syracuse got mainly wind while Catania was badly flooded. Cycling there led us through a few waterlogged stretches of road and Catania itself was still under the weather. We did see another Greek/Roman theatre, a few Churches, a castle and, most impressive, were sent to a restaurant that served huge steaks for very little money.
We had just enough time left to ride around Etna and have a good look at Taormina. Going up from Catania we found very narrow streets. We weren’t the only ones though, half the cars in town had to use this shortcut too so we decided to take the road meant for them. That gave us a hard shoulder and (here it comes again) less rubbish. At least here the volcano burns and buries it every 1000 years.
The day down to Taormina was our best on the whole trip. Etna out in all its glory, Vineyards, old towns and castles, mountain views and then after a very steep incline Taormina, a gem of a town.
We even got a little house with garden in the old town. Bliss.
Of course, we went to see the famous Greek theatre here too, then strolled up to Castelmola for a view, down to Isola Bella (hyped up far beyond reason) and back for another lovely plate of food.
Cruising on quiet roads back to Catania was pleasant and with a bit of sunshine it’s a lot nicer here. One of the biggest attractions is the fish market and we even had time for a guided tour of Teatro Bellini (not Greek!)
Conclusion: We had many days that were absolutely delightful and a few that would have justified being anywhere else. People were really nice and helpful; the food was excellent, and Kurt even got a fair amount of craft beers to sample. I could tell you a lot more now, but I really have to go to the kitchen. I’ll try to make typical Sicilian Busiate pasta for dinner and that requires the rest of my afternoon.
If you feel like reading in more detail, here is the link to our homepage
and if you prefere moving pics, we also made a video
Hope you enjoyed this entry. Let us know anyway. Ci vediamo
Today's ride: 886 km (550 miles)
Total: 886 km (550 miles)
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