Adrano to Zafferana Etnea

April 11, 2023

Today’s ride was only 43 km, but involved 1064 metres of climbing with a maximum grade of 14%. I don’t recall doing any pushing but I sure wasn’t setting any speed records either.

Patty’s House offered a decent Italian breakfast (with muesli, finally!) and then we headed out—to find a sunny spot before we left town for Al to change out his shifter battery. He’s been getting messages about it since Piazza Armerina, but the messages went away as the day warmed up. He carries spares but wasn’t desperate to try swapping them when nothing was open in case it didn’t go well.

And of course it didn’t. He’s changed the shifter batteries before, at home, with the correct screwdriver. It was a challenge using the little optical screwdriver I carry as an accessory on my Swiss Army knife but he got it done. Unfortunately, the new battery was already dead.

On our way to find a bike store, which may or may not carry the batteries used in Sram eTap shifters, Al spotted an electronics store and bought two fresh batteries. We set up in a nearby sunny pocket piazza and the job went faster the second time. Success! No more worries about being suddenly unable to shift in hilly Sicily.

On one of the streets facing the little piazza was a shop where I bought us some water for the ride. I dislike using bottled water, but the tap water most places in Sicily doesn’t taste that good, and one does wonder about the elderly plumbing in these very old buildings.

A produce vendor was also set up in the piazza and I went to buy a couple of oranges to go with my leftover pizza and the extra ham, cheese, and bread from yesterday’s lunch. [Note to self: don’t send Al in to buy lunch supplies.]. He gave them to me free of charge and expressed some curiosity about what we were doing. I explained. He had some English and I think he understood because he came over a few minutes later with a set of jeweller’s screwdrivers. Just as Al finished. But such a nice gesture! I like the people of Adrano (based on him, the friendly guy in the shop, our very considerate waiter last night, our B&B host Patrizia, her sister who let us in, in short, everyone we encountered.

Both bikes operational, we headed off on a course that would take us up Etna a bit on quiet roads. When I’d created the route, I thought we’d be riding through fields or forests, but most of the climb was between a series of country estates, with a few orchards for variety. Whichever, the properties were surrounded by fences, often added on top of basalt rock walls. I suspect the fences were mostly to keep trash out. Any property that isn’t fenced risks being used as an unofficial garbage dump.

This photo is from yesterday, at the beginning of the climb to Adrano. We saw many more of these on our ride today.

The produce vendor. That’s not him walking by but I wanted to remember his thoughtfulness.

A peek at Etna through a wall built of black lava rock.

The road didn’t always look steep but it sure felt that way. I rode most of the first 15 km, the climb, in my lowest gear.

Over it all was Etna, unobscured by clouds and revealed in all her volcanic glory. Until, of course, the usual clouds rolled in in the afternoon.

Looking across an apple orchard at the dominant feature

This is the highest point of our ride. We didn’t go up the driveway behind me so don’t know where it led.

Near that driveway was this pair of signs. The “cyclisti in allenamento ” signs were posted periodically on the climb, each apparently sponsored by different businesses. I had to look up allenamento; it means training.

When our route tilted downward, we stopped and put on the layers we’d taken off before. We finally found a place to eat our lunch in Nicolosi, sitting on the warm basalt steps to a little shrine. Then the not-so-pleasant ride along more major roads to our very nice B&B in Zafferana Etnea.

We stopped and looked at occasional moonscapes on the descent.

There are many walking routes in the area. It seemed we had already descended quite a bit, but the sign indicates we are still at elevation 1275 m.

Where we stopped to eat our lunch on the steps.

We didn’t arrive at Etna Sunrise B&B until after 4 so didn’t go out again until it was time to find a restaurant for dinner. We ended up at Trattoria La Pentolaccia and the food was good, though perhaps not excellent. We had found that sharing 3 courses meant we always “needed” dessert so this time, given that the prices for pasta were lower than usual, we decided to order our own first courses and share an antipasto and secondi. Of course, the portions were HUGE! When we asked the waiter for a box, he said “takeaway” and we figured we weren’t the first.

Al took this photo of our antipasto. The dish mid-right came first, with olives, marinated dried tomatoes, and some other pickled vegetable. We demolished it, thinking “is this all we get for 15€?” The other two plates came later and there was actually quite a lot.

Al was presented with the biggest serving of lasagne either of us had ever seen. Even if we’d shared it, we could never have eaten it all. He brought more than half back to our room (luckily furnished with a fridge).

My ravioli; I managed to eat most of it.

The mixed grill we had ordered to share. About half is now in the fridge with the lasagna.

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Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 1,059 km (658 miles)

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Scott AndersonAll of the photos of Etna are wonderful. What a great time to be there!
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