Note: as of March 2023 I think this loop is no longer possible. The road down the west side is totally barricaded at the top, apparently because is either so damaged from slides or at risk from rockfalls.
Our final ride of the tour is a loop through Monte Pellegrino, the formation that rises abruptly just about two miles west of central Palermo. It took a bit of coaxing on my part to bring Rachael along on this ride - as you may have heard, by now she’s tired of the heat and just wants to go home. I really want to do this ride though, and agree that we will get started super-early before the temperature starts spiking.
We’ve been up this mountain before, on the first ride of our first Sicilian tour. I’d read good things about the ride when researching that trip, so we chose it as the route to Castellamare al Golfo. We picked a different route to Castellamare this year for the sake of variety, but I was torn about it because I remember Pellegrino as being such a fine climb, the road switching up the steep eastern face and providing great views back over the city before dropping down the other side with even better views toward Mondello.
While I’m waiting for the morning’s coffee to sink in so I can think of what else to say here, you might as well get a sneak preview by looking at the final video of the tour. And hey - this one has another horse in it!
Well, that worked. I’m more or less awake now, so let’s hit the road. Super-early for us these days translates to getting up at six for an early cup of coffee and a light breakfast, waiting awhile for nature to do its thing, and then rolling out the door of our palace a bit before eight. It’s a refreshing time to be out - the air is almost cool, there’s a light breeze, and Palermo’s streets are fairly quiet as we head down to the waterfront and the bike path west along the harbor.
I’m sure they’re mostly still on the road now as mobile tourist traps, but I don’t care - I think Sicily’s painted horse drawn carts are beautiful.
This small flea market is just coming to life this morning. There must be a thousand markets of all sorts and sizes tucked into Palermo’s squares and alleys.
Palermo doesn’t quite have this bike path business down yet. It’s nice that there’s this striped sidewalk to protect you from the busy harborside traffic, but this spot is awkward. You have to cross the busy road to the other side here, unable to see any of the oncoming traffic.
On our first pass over Pellegrino we rode up its eastern face. This time though we’re taking the climb in reverse, starting by following the sea around to the western approach and then doubling back over the top. I’m actually a bit uncertain about taking this ride as a loop, because I don’t know how busy the seaside road will prove to be. We’re going this direction for the variety from the last time, to keep the sea on our right for hopefully better views, and also to take the seaside road early in the hope that traffic won’t be too bad yet.
And, it isn’t bad at all. It’s only a couple of miles, and the road is no worse at least than the other inner city biking we’ve seen here - meaning that you have to keep alert for double parkers, opening car doors, potholes, impatient scooters, folks dashing across the traffic in front of you. Just the usual. Along the way, we pass dozens of roadside cut flower stands. This must be the primary flower market row for the city.
Two miles from our room, and we approach the eastern edge of Monte Pellegrino. It’s almost shocking how sheer its seaside face is.
It’s hard to get a good look at Pellegrino from its sea side, unless you’re out on the water I guess. There’s all the roadside clutter obstructing the view, but also it’s the scale - you can’t get far enough back for a complete view. Here we’re looking at perhaps a third of the seaside face of the mountain.
After a few miles of this we pass the western flank of the mountain and abruptly turn away from the sea. Almost immediately we’re out of the traffic and riding through the quiet residential streets of Addaura. Suddenly we make a sharp left turn straight at the cliff face up a block-long street so steep we decide to just get up and walk it. The climb is on.
Leaving the sea, we pass through quiet, residential Addaura. The climb begins shortly, gradually rising along the base of the cliffs.
Soon we leave Addaura and enter the large, parklike reserve that covers most of the mountain. Suddenly we have the road to ourselves, literally. There are concrete barriers across the road at the base of the climb, and the entire ascent is closed to cars. We share the ascent only with about a half dozen bikes going the other way; a single scooter that managed to squeeze past the barricade somehow; and thousands of lizards dashing across the road in front of us.
It’s a dramatic climb, with the cliffs rising straight up from our left shoulder, and then straight up in front of us as well. It’s hard to see how our road will get up through here, and then a short tunnel suddenly appears that bores through a slender flange of the cliff.
On the opposite side of the tunnel we climb up through a series of bends that on the map look like shoelaces, alternately taking in views first to the west across Mondello and Capo Gallo and then back east again toward the outskirts of Palermo. It’s a great climb the whole way - quiet, awesome, shaded at this time of the day by the mountain, and never that steep. Partway up, we see why the road is probably closed to cars - the road is too narrow, the bends too sharp and precarious, the guard rails completely missing in spots. I’m really just as happy to be slowly climbing as dropping the other way and worried about sailing off into space.
Mondello, backed by massive Capo Gallo. You’ll remember this cape from earlier in the tour - we were looking at its western side from our ride/hike to the Zingaro Reserve.
We looked at this snake of a road climbing up Capo Gallo when we discussed today’s route. We really should have crossed the valley and climbed it too - the views from the top must be awesome.
Near the summit, we reach the barricades that block the road from the other side. Suddenly we’re back in civilization again. Many cars are parked on the shoulder of the road, and walkers and picnickers are about their business. At the summit there’s a short commercial zone with the usual small markets and souvenir stands. There’s also a short spur that dead ends at a belvedere overlooking the sea, which we of course take. For the first time we start seeing other bikers in significant numbers, climbing up from the Palermo side.
The view from the belvedere at the summit of Monte Pellegrino. Here, we’re looking through the smog across Palermo’s bay to Capo Zafferano.
The ride back down the east side to Palermo is great fun - not too steep, dropping through a series of switchbacks with full-on views of the city alternating with ones back into the cliffs. Or, it would be great fun, if the silly road didn’t have a rough brick surface on each of the bends that forces you (or cautious Rachael and I, at least) to slow down considerably for each one. On the day before our flight home it didn’t seem like the time to risk skidding on the bricks into an oncoming car or over a cliff.
Oh, I forgot. Here’s the real final video of the tour. And no, we’re not such fearsome descenders as it looks here - it’s been sped up to smooth out the rough chatter over the bricks for your viewing pleasure.
So, that’s the tour. There is still so much to see in Palermo itself, but we didn’t see it this afternoon either. There’s lunch to be had, I’ve got a couple of Bike Fridays yet to be suitcased, and it’s hot enough to sap our enthusiasm. Really, sightseeing in Palermo is better done in one of the cooler months.
For dinner we find a lovely little family-run restaurant, Il Cambusone. A small place, only a few tables, not at all a tourist hangout. While we’re dining a young girl in a ballet outfit comes in followed by her brother, and cozies up to our server - evidently his kids. They hang around for a while, then get bored and dash out again. After dinner we see them in the adjacent piazza, chasing each other around its statue in an apparent game of hide and seek. It’s a lovely memory to end the tour with.
This is the same building we took a few shots of at dinner yesterday. It’s surprising how colorful and attractive it is. The grittiness and disrepair of Palermo provides a lot of its beauty.
Back in your boxes, I say! For a change, it goes smoothly. I think I’m finally getting the hang of packing our new bikes, but we’ll see when we take them out again whether I’ve broken something again.
Piazza San Domenico, near our restaurant for the evening. I think you could stay in Palermo for a long time and just keep discovering new spots like this.
