Piazza Armerina: a very Good Friday - In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies - CycleBlaze

Piazza Armerina: a very Good Friday - In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies - CycleBlaze

From In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

By Scott Anderson & Rachael Anderson

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April 19, 2019

Piazza Armerina: a very Good Friday

This is another day with a brief narrative. Not because there’s nothing to say - in fact, this was the consensus best day of the tour. Everything about it was phenomenal, but I’m going to save some time for what came after this incredible ride ended: the Good Friday procession to Piazza Armerina’s cathedral. Stay tuned.

A leftover I forgot to post yesterday in Piazzolo Acreide with Etna in the background. I didn’t think you’d want to miss this great plug for The Bike Gallery.

The next time you stay in Grammichele, we can definitely recommend this spot.

There’s a bit of early mist still to be burned off when we walk down to the center for breakfast.

Dropping into the Caltagirone river valley, with the town of Caltagirone crowning the opposite ridge. We’ve come full circle over the last ten days.

Grammichele sits surrounded by really splendid country. Beautiful biking in, beautiful biking out.

After dropping a thousand feet, we bottom out at the Caltagirone River.

After crossing the river, we turn off onto one of the quietest roads imaginable and begin the 1,200’ climb up the other wall of the valley. It looks like we’ll cross over somewhere near those windmills up there.

It’s a gentle climb. Rachael, feeling turbocharged, zips right to the top at double time and waits for me there. I take my time, taking in the views and listening to the frogs.

Yup, I was spot on - we cross over right at the wind turbines. It’s been a very quiet ascent - I think I counted four slow moving cars on the way up.

The way down is even more spectacular, and even quieter - we’re about to experience a ride of epic solitude. I don’t believe we saw another moving vehicle for the next three hours.

Her bike’s fine. She’s a bit stunned and just had to stop and look around.

We’re going steadily downhill, but we’re getting nowhere fast. Every bend in the road brings us a stunning new view.

Definitely a ten jammer of a day.

Xxx

After slowly dropping a thousand feet, we start climbing again. Soon we’ll stop for lunch, enjoying leftover pizza on a wall by the road. Really, we could just as well have had our picnic in the middle of the road.

So that last road was pretty rough, pretty quiet. We turn off onto one that’s rougher still, and continue climbing.

It’s much emptier on this side of the valley, but a long abandoned structure stands up here and there. It has almost a surreal feeling.

This section of the road was ethereal, but very rough and quite slow going. We were happy enough to see pavement again when it finally came.

We’ve still got some climbing ahead and are late getting to our room, so Rachael prodded me to keep moving. Still, some views demand that you stop.

Such a relief to be on a smoother surface again. Now we’re really flying.

One last look back.

Crossing the final ridge, we come to Piazza Armerina. Our room is right at the base of the cathedral. Pay no attention to the trench in between. Nothing to see here, folks.

Didn’t we just do this yesterday? No, that was a snap. The climb into Piazza Armerina is four times as bad.

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Ride stats today: 34 miles, 3,900’; for the tour: 718 miles, 48,100’

Today's ride: 34 miles (55 km)
Total: 718 miles (1,156 km)

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