To Ragusa

April 2, 2023

We’ve got a lot to fit in this morning so we get an early start. By seven we’ve had our first coffee and Rachael’s already scrambling up the eggs. We’re really quite pleased with the way our room has worked out for us here, especially because we’re the only guests and have the kitchen area to ourselves. Stephano meets us on the street at nine precisely to pick up the key, just as I’m hauling the last bike down the staircase from our first floor room.

We trade the few simple niceties available to folks with little common language and we’re off, biking past the Duomo toward Via Roma and the descent out of town. The plaza is nearly empty this morning, with no obvious sign that it’s Palm Sunday other than a vendor selling palm fronds. If there are any festivities in store for the day they apparently aren’t happening this morning.

It helps that I biked this way two days ago and managed to screw it up then, so we’re paying better attention to the map this time and get it right. A mile and a half descent later we start leaving the town behind and get the enormous view of Mount Etna I saw on the way back from Grammichele. It’s steaming today!

A last look at Caltagirone’s Duomo; and the really last look, I imagine. A beautiful structure, but three times visiting this place is sufficient.

Etna is lightly belching this morning. It wasn’t like that two days ago.

We’ve gotten an unusually early start by our standards for a few reasons. One is that it’s a pretty challenging ride with a significant climb waiting at the end, and we want to build in time for it in case it’s needed. For another, you wouldn’t suspect it from the brilliant blue sky this morning but showers are predicted in the early afternoon and we want to beat them. Most pressingly though, we’ve arranged an early check-in with our host in Ragusa with the idea of getting to our room before the rain. She can meet us at one but not two, so that’s that’s time we’re shooting for.

We make good time for the first half of the ride naturally, because it’s largely downhill ant first and most of the pain is built in at the end. We’ve picked a good route too, for the most part well surfaced but lightly traveled.

And we’re both feeling well this morning. Rachael’s prolonged GI issue seems to finally have run its course, and I’m riding comfortably myself. With a day like this, the thought crosses my mind that maybe we’re leaving too soon, just when we’re coming to some of the best riding.

After a long descent from Caltagirone we stop at the top of a low rise for a last look back. Like so many places, its best look is from a distance.

Here’s another spot best seen from a distance. When they first came into view, I thought those white patches were fields of fruit trees in bloom.

While I’ve stopped to collect that crow Rachael disappears around the bend and a group of about ten riders charges after her. I think these might be the first serious cyclists we’ve seen since leaving Palermo.

And then, in what for me counts as a miracle, I see a distinctive profile on the wire up ahead - a hoopoe! I’ve only seen a few in my lifetime, all very fleetingly as one flew past and immediately disappeared leaving no chance to even grab the camera from my shirt much less focus a shot. This one ahead is still too far off for a much of a shot, but I stop here anyway not wanting to risk startling him off.

He flies off anyway, darn it all. I start biking again but slowly, keeping my eye out and then see him back on the line again further up the road. This time I’ve got him!

#133: Eurasian hoopoe. Unmistakeable, with that head that makes me think of a miner’s pick axe. Is there anywhere another bird species that looks at all like this?

Video sound track: , by Keith Jarrett

Not long after I catch up to Rachael waiting by the road. She’s realized the obvious - it’s eleven now and we’re only halfway to Ragusa, with all of the real work still ahead. There’s no way we’ll make it by our arranged time of one, so she calls our host to try to arrange a different time. Communications are confused, but we at least get across that we’ll be later than planned, perhaps much later.

Which is too bad, but at least we’re free now to relax and tackle the upcoming climb at the right pace, and to slow down and appreciate the breathtaking scenery surrounding us - roads lined with stone walls, brilliant fields of daisies stretching to the horizon, and rounded hills latticed with limestone walls that look like they’ve been there for centuries. Really, it’s the most spectacular stretch of road of the tour so far.

The big climb of the day, 1,200’ in five miles, starts out stiffly with a steep stretch that hangs at 10-12% for maybe a half mile. I’m pleased to be able to stay with it, and eventually it backs off and stays at a manageable 5-7% the rest of the way to the top. Really it’s not as bad as we’d been anticipating, and we’re amply rewarded by the views back down to the valley we’re rising out of.

Unbelievable. If you do decide to come to Sicily someday, make it be in springtime.

The countryside in this part of the island is much different than we’ve seen further to the west.

I’m sure Susan has been wondering whether there are any cows to be seen in Sicily,

I love scenes like this. It makes me think of the Balkans.

Near the top of the climb, looking back. Our road snaked up between those two rounded hills.

Once over the top we soon enter the outskirts of Ragusa and start descending. It’s gradual at first, but eventually we come to the ravine that separates the upper city from the lower one, Ragusa Ibla, where our room is. Even though we’re in the middle of the city, the drop is stunning - a crazy serpentine lined by steep walls, opening up into amazing views across the lower city.

Overall it’s been a spectacular ride, maybe the best ride of the tour so far. It’s a nice memory to be leaving the island with. We’re lucky that Rachael still had enough battery left to capture it on video - don’t miss it.

Ragusa Ibla, seen from the upper city. Our room is just a block or two from that dome in the distance, the Duomo.

Video sound track: I Wonder (Song for Michael), by Yasmin Williams

RideWithGPS has its fun with us again, bringing us to a corner that’s only two or three blocks from our B&B. Unfortunately they’re all up a steep staircase. We aren’t about to go that way, so it takes a bit of mapwork to find a bikeable route to the top. We follow it around a few bends and soon come to an open plaza beneath the Duomo, obviously one of the primary gathering spots in the lower town. A few cafes line the road, and folks are gazing up the staircase to the Duomo and taking photos. Our room is still at the top and we’ve heard that our host hasn’t arrived yet, so we lean the bikes against a bench and find a table at the nearest cafe and order paninis.

A half hour later we finally work our way up and check ourselves in to our room at Il Duomo Relais, an elegant three star place straight across from the dome. Our hosts, a warm and lovely couple, are there waiting for us when we arrive and very welcoming, and seemingly not vexed at all by our late arrival time. We’ll learn the next morning that we’re their first guests of the season, which is really only just beginning.

An interesting proposal, but not really one that works for us.

Staring up at the Duomo, contemplating whether a snack is called for.

The view from the front door of our lodging.

At 7:30 we head down to our restaurant for the night, below the Duomo and not far from where we had lunch. The rains have finally arrived, and we feel lucky that it’s only raining lightly as we navigate our way down steep staircases on the confusing route to the bottom. Rachael’s prepared for worse and is wearing her rain pants, but they really aren’t needed - yet.

It’s a different story when we leave the restaurant. It’s pouring! We walk as fast as we can, stopping here and there in a doorway or beneath a canopy for a brief break; but water is streaming down the road surfaces, and by the time we make it up to our room we’re both thoroughly soaked. We’ll learn over breakfast the next morning that this is the first significant rainfall they’ve seen since the first of the year; and more is on the way, from the looks of the forecasts.

So yes, it does look like we’ve found the right time to shift gears into a new plan after all.

Hard to tell here, but it’s pouring when we leave the restaurant.

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Ride stats today: 38 miles, 2,900’; for the tour: 344 miles, 25,700’

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2023 Bird List

133. Hooded crow

134. Eurasian hoopoe

Today's ride: 38 miles (61 km)
Total: 344 miles (554 km)

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Bob KoreisBeautiful video of your entering Ragusa. The music bed was a fine choice to help capture mood. There is something about the Two Kingdoms that speaks to me in. way I can't put into words. The two complementary Sicily journals have me counting the many months (a few years) before I can return.
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1 year ago

Kathleen JonesBJ and I were helping you steer through that hairpin. Nice video.
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1 year ago