Our Sicily Cycling Adventure Begins!
After spending one night in Palermo and one night in Cefalu, we headed for Catania for one night before meeting up with our Backroads cycling group the next morning. We took two trains from Cefalu to Catania -- the first was from Cefalu to Messina and the second was Messina to Catania. It was a bit challenging to understand exactly where our seats were in the first train, but we finally realized that nobody was sitting in their assigned seats anyway. On the second train there was some sort of kerfuffle going on and the Italian Polizia asked us for our passports. This was a bit unnerving and they didn't bring our passports back for about 20 minutes.After about 5 hours on the two trains we arrived in Catania and took a taxi to our hotel. Catania is the second largest city in Sicily and the downtown area felt much more upscale than Palermo with lots and lots of fancy shops. Since it was Saturday when we arrived, there were all sorts of special events going on that afternoon. We had an early dinner at a bistro and went to bed around 8 pm that night.
First Day of Cycling -- Meeting our group in Catania
On Sunday morning we woke up early to go on a walk in the city of Catania. We knew we would be meeting our Backroads group at 10 am and that we would be taking a 90 minute shuttle ride before we started cycling, so we figured it would be good to get a little exercise before breakfast and sitting on a bus for a while.Catania sits at the foot of Mt. Etna, so the first thing we had to do was get a good photo of Europe's most active volcano, which stands at 11,000 feet!
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| Looking West toward Mt. Etna from downtown Catania early Sunday morning |
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| Sunday morning walk in downtown Catania |
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| Park in central Catania on our Sunday morning walk |
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| Susan standing in front of the main church in Catania |
We met the other Backroads guests and our two main Backroads leaders at the hotel. The main leader was named 'Alessandro' and he was a native of Catania. The other leader was 'Marta' and she was from Rome. They were both as charming as could be (they always are) and they instructed us to get on the shuttle to Bucherri.
We arrived in Bucherri and had lunch at a local Bistro that was fabulous. After lunch we received our bicycles and instructions on where to ride next. Since this was the first day, we were only riding about 25 miles. The weather was perfect -- sunny and cool. So we departed for Grammichele at about 1:30 pm.
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| Our friends, Wendy and Chris Blau joined us from Santa Barbara |
Castello Camemi is a beautiful old castle turned into a hotel near the town of Vizzini. Backroads always does a great job of finding great accommodations like Castello Camemi, where you can really get a sense of history -- but for a reasonable price. We had a fantastic dinner there and went to bed fairly early as we knew we had a 60 mile ride the next day.
Day 2 of Cycling in Sicily . . . Grammichele Loop with lots of Climbing
After a quick breakfast, our entire group of 14 cyclists met outside the hotel for the daily "Route Wrap." This is where the leaders walk us through the day's route and tell us about any significant hills or dangers during the ride. It was a little brisk in the morning, so most of us had opted for windbreakers and tights, etc. |
| Alessandro Showing us the route for the day |
It was a clear day with a little bit of wind. The views were incredible all throughout the route. We stopped for lunch at a local Agriturismo about 30 miles in. The meals here in Sicily are incredible. Everything is farm to table and home-made. One of our favorite local foods is the 'Arancini,' which is a ball of rice surrounded by bread crumbs and a filling of either meat or vegetables.
About two thirds of the way through our 52 mile ride, we encountered a long line of sheep crossing the road with a shepherd and sheep-dog herding them along:
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| Waiting for the sheep to cross near Caltagirone |
Everywhere you look, it's GREEN
We were very surprised at how GREEN Sicily is. In many ways, the countryside looked more like Austria or Ireland than our preconceived image of Sicily. Apparently they had experienced a slightly wetter than normal winter. There were wildflowers EVERYWHERE and it kind of made us feel at home since California also experienced a wet winter and things are very green at home too. |
| Green Grass and Poppies Everywhere! |
Today's loop was about 52 miles with 4,300 feet of climbing. We could tell that we were starting to burn more calories all day long and that it was important to stay hydrated and adequately fueled. We finished our ride around 4 pm and went for a quick swim before a shuttle ride into the town.
For dinner that night, we went into the town of Caltagirone to see the famous 142 steps leading up to the top of the city and to dine at a well known seafood restaurant.
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| The 142 Steps of Caltagirone |
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| Looking down from the top . . my legs were tired! |
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| This is our Backroads Group of 14 people . . . all from the US |
The seafood restaurant was called 'Il Locandiere' and it was, as usual, fantastic. Backroads had arranged for a pre fixed menu, which was a great idea. After 52 miles of riding and 4,300 feet of climbing, we were ready for some good food.
The town of Caltagirone is famous for its local pottery, so we also got to see a local artist in action:
Day 3 of Cycling in Sicily . . . Grammichele to Ragusa and yes . . More Hills!
Our 3rd day of riding was a 'moving day,' meaning that we had to pack our bags and say goodbye to Castello Camemi. The weather had warmed up a bit and the sun was shining, so off we went toward Ragusa for a 60 mile ride with about 4,600 feet of climbing. Our Backroads leaders took all of our suitcases and loaded them into the vans and provided support throughout the ride.
About 25 miles into day 3 we stopped for lunch at a local Agriturismo in the town of Chiaramonte Gulfi. This particular Agriturismo is famous for their olive oil and we got a tour by the proprietor. His family has been living there producing olive oil for 300 years . . . wow!
Here we had a fantastic picnic lunch and got mentally prepared to ride 35 more miles with lots of climbing.
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| This was the first big climb of the afternoon on day 3 . . . little did I know how tough it was going to be! |
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| We had to get out of the way of these dairy cattle! |
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| This was taken at mile 58 of 60. Note the wildflowers. |
The route through the countryside on day 3 was gorgeous. The only problem was that I did not adequately prepare for the last of the day's big climbs and only had a little bit of food and water with me . . . oops! I ended up doing fine, but I would have liked to have seen our Backroads van for some coca cola and M&Ms to fuel me at the end. We arrived at our next hotel at about 5 pm that afternoon.
Eremo della Giubiliana was our home for the next two nights and it was another amazing castle that used to be occupied by the Knights of Malta around the 13th century. We had a wine tasting before dinner along with a sampling of some of the local Sicilian appetizers.
After the wine tasting and dinner, I pulled out my guitar and played a few songs for the group. It turned out that one of the other Backroads guests was a classmate of mine from Yale and was in the Whiffenpoof singing group -- so I knew he could sing! We didn't know each other in school, but he did look familiar.
Day 4 of Cycling in Sicily . . . Ragusa to Sicli and Modica
Once again we woke up to beautiful clear skies on the 4th day of riding. This was to be yet another day of about 60 miles and nearly 5,000 feet of climbing. We had a quick breakfast, got the route information from our guides and headed down the mountain toward some really interesting and ancient cities.
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| Day 4 Route Wrap . . . |
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| The Santa Barbara Cyclists . . Susan, Chris, Palmer & Wendy |
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| The Blaus and the Jacksons above the ancient city of Scicli |
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| Mushroom Pizza in a Trattoria in Scicli |
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| Modica is know for great chocolate and you can sample it easily! |
This was the view on the way back up the hill . . . .
After the ride that night we got a shuttle into the Baroque town of Ragusa Iba and found a great little place for dinner. After 4 days of riding and 3 days in a row of 60 miles, we were a bit tired!
Day 5 of Cycling in Sicily . . . Ragusa to Siracusa
Day 5 was a moving day, so we had to be up a bit earlier and pack up for the next destination. We woke up to another great weather day, but with a few clouds in the sky. We had to take a shuttle ride away from Ragusa to avoid the heavy local traffic and get to a place where we could start the day's ride. This would be the last major mileage day -- the plan was for 62 miles and a little less climbing that the previous days -- only 3,700 feet.Once again we got the 'Route Wrap' from our leaders and off we went . . .
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| Our Backroads Leaders: Alessandro, Martha and Emma |
We thought we had seen all of the different types of beautiful countryside that Sicily had to offer, but, once again, we were wrong. The first 25 miles of this day just took our breath away. Here are some of the vistas:
Then it was time to stop at another Agriturismo for lunch. And, once again, it was excellent:
After lunch it was another 30 miles of riding into the town of Siracusa for our last night of the trip at the Grand Hotel Minareto. For the last 15 miles or so, Wendy and Chris and I formed a pace line and averaged about 20 miles through the flats of Siracusa to the hotel. We had finished a pretty good climb before that and were ready to finish up the day's metric century of about 62 miles.
For dinner that night we went by boat to the island of Ortigia for dinner. But prior to dinner, we had cocktails overlooking the Mediterranean and I sang a song to honor our Backroads leaders and the group with some humor. Will post that video later.
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