Splendid Sicily stars in bike tour

By Bill

I’d been a commuter cyclist for many years but had never done a long-distance, multi-day bike tour. So when I turned 50 in 2012, I really wanted to celebrate this milestone birthday by trying one… and in another country. Turns out that Sicily is a great place to try a bike tour.

I picked Italy, simply because I love the food. Then I choose a bike tour company – Siciclando. After talking to their representatives about what kind of trip I wanted (elements like daily miles and pace, level of difficulty, accommodation style), they recommended Sicily.

Kathryn didn’t come with me, for two reasons. At that point, she had not become the enthusiastic cyclist she is today; she was willing to come with me only if we toured the Netherlands or Saskatchewan i.e. flat places. (After she took up cycling, we biked the mountainous Portuguese Camino.) Also, she had learned a lot from her solo trip to Kilimanjaro when she had turned 50, so she encouraged me to try a solo trip as well.

Earlier this month, I shared a PowerPoint presentation about my bike tour with a group of travel friends on Zoom, so I thought our travel blog readers would enjoy it as well.

When in Rome you are morally compelled to visit the eternal, ancient monuments.

I flew to Rome and spent three nights in a small inn in the Trastevere neighbourhood, just across the Tiber River from Rome’s historical centre. Each day, I marvelled at the views from the bridge as I walked to see the ancient Roman monuments.

The Colosseum and the Forum are busy, even in October. I discovered two key visiting tips. First, avoid the long lines at the Colosseum by buying a combo ticket for both sights at the entrance to the Forum, which has much shorter lines. Tickets are good for the day. I bought mine at the Forum, promptly left to go see the Colosseum first, and then returned to the Forum later. My second tip is to download Rick Steves’ free audio walking tours for both sights (he has 11 just for Rome). That way you know what you’re looking at and don’t have to pay for a guided tour. Rick Steves is our go-to guy for European travel – all his guidebooks, videos, audio tours and info on his website are fantastic.

Beside the Colosseum was Constantine’s Arch. He was Rome’s first Christian emperor, having converted to Christianity in 312. He’s famous for a few things. He ordered that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem be built on the site of Jesus’ tomb. And he tried to get all Christians to agree on a common statement of beliefs, resulting in the Nicene Creed written in 325 – a creed that’s still in use today.

In the Forum – basically the marketplace of ancient Rome – is the site of Julius Caesar’s cremation. You join a short line and go under the protective roof where you can see a pile that was ash 2,000 years ago. Fresh flowers are still laid there every day.

Every time you walk around a corner in Rome, boom, there’s another famous sight! You can’t get any vistas from afar of the Trevi Fountain, however, because the visitors are too packed in. It’s a spectacular fountain and one of the busiest spots I visited. The Castel Sant’Angelo was built in 139 AD as Emperor Hadrian’s tomb, and later used as a refuge for the Pope before the Vatican built their own.

The rooftop tour of St. Peter’s Basilica was my favourite part of Vatican City.

I spent a day at the Vatican City complex – well worth it but it’s crowded so be sure to reserve tickets ahead. In theory, photos are not allowed to be taken inside the Vatican Museum or the Sistine Chapel. Many people defied that rule but I obeyed, so have no photos to share. The inside of St. Peter’s Basilica dome is lined with what I thought were frescoes, but once you look closely, you see that they are actually tile mosaics.

The Vatican highlight for me was the rooftop tour of St. Peter’s. A long, narrow stairway winds upwards and the walls narrow at the top to about 18 inches apart – not recommended for those with claustrophobia or acrophobia. But it’s a nice break from the crowds and a very cool place to see, with spectacular views from the rooftop over the city. When Kathryn and I returned to Rome together in 2016, we had lunch – wine and sandwiches – at the small café up there, right on the rooftop! The Pontifical Swiss guards, in their goofy uniforms, are fun to see. 

On that first visit, I missed the rooftop restaurant and couldn’t find any other food near the Vatican. Restaurants or even food carts were strangely lacking, within the walled Vatican City. Finally, I found pizza – sold not by the slice, but by weight.

I could have spent months in Rome, but it was time to head to Sicily.

I was very happy that I chose Siciclando for my bike touring company.

I chose Siciclando for my bicycle tour company because they had smaller group sizes, were Italian and were one of the least expensive. Since Sicily is home to the Mafia, I wondered about crime there. But a little bit of research reassured me it would be safe. In the 1990s a campaign of arrests and trials aimed at reducing organized crime began. Two judges had been assassinated, causing public opinion to shift and soon things were much safer. At least as safe as any big city. 

There are no direct flights from Canada to Sicily so that’s why I stopped first in Rome. Then I took a domestic flight from Rome to the city of Catania. (Current price is $77 roundtrip.) Or you could catch a ferry from Naples. 

My seven-day, six-night bike tour started in Randazzo on the outskirts of Etna National Park. We could see the famous volcano on most of our riding days as we headed south to Paterno and Scordia. After reaching Syracuse, we got a van ride north to Giarre. Our last day’s ride was into Taormina. (Siciclando’s routes have changed since then.)

I met my five fellow riders: two couples from New York and a nurse from Pennsylvania. After our first day’s ride, we received our colourful cycling jerseys. We set out each day with a printed map on our handlebars, which included a step-by-step set of directions. This was technically a guided bike tour, but our guide didn’t ride with us; he drove the van with our luggage. He would meet us to hand out snacks, refill water bottles and park at the tricky intersections to make sure we didn’t get lost. We made only one wrong turn in the entire trip. Today, we would likely have GPS bike computers with maps and turn-by-turn instructions; self-guided touring has definitely become easier with these devices.

Dinners were a highlight of each day. The day’s ride built good appetites and we ate and drank very well. Our tour guide was with us for dinners and was a great interpreter.

Seeing Sicily’s sights from a bike was much easier than driving, especially in the towns and villages with their extremely narrow streets.

Along our way, we sometimes stopped for a cold drink or an espresso. Note the older guy joining us to read his paper. Or were we joining him? Most cafes featured a regular set of older gents sitting out front and I am pretty sure we had taken someone’s spot!

Traffic was generally very respectful of us cyclists. We all rode together and had a similar pace except for hill climbs. Riding pace can be an issue with larger groups that have fast and slow riders. Our average day’s ride was 50 kilometres, with our longest 80 kilometres and our shortest 20 kilometres. The terrain was mostly long rolling hills, similar to Gatineau Park with perhaps a few longer climbs (for those familiar with cycling in the Ottawa area). 

I loved seeing the old cities by bike – way easier to get around and parking was never an issue. I can’t imagine going up those streets in a car. I rode a hybrid bike, which was okay but heavy going up the rolling hills. The two New York couples had paid an upgrade for proper road bikes, which I should have done.

Sicily is dry yet green, with lots of cacti and cedars. In early October, the weather was fantastic for cycling: in the mid-20s Celsius during the day and in the high teens at night – perfect for dining al fresco. Siciclando doesn’t offer tours in July and August in Sicily because it gets too hot. We passed many vineyards but, surprisingly, no tasting rooms. Good thing – or we would have been much slower! However, we did a lot of wine tasting at dinner.

Riding on back roads, we set our own pace. We stopped at whatever struck our interest, like a church built from black volcanic stone. We saw old caves that were used as root and wine cellars. We rode through many empty towns where people had moved away to the cities for work, leaving a lot of empty houses. Now, in a bid to rejuvenate these towns and villages, Italy offers some houses for sale for one Euro as long as you invest in renovating them.

We were promised boutique-style accommodations and Siciclando delivered with a variety of great places.

On our second night, the accommodations bar was set high! We stayed in a converted manor home and my room featured a raised bed under a round window. The marble-lined bathroom had a huge Jacuzzi tub, shower and separate dressing room. In the formal dining room, we feasted on lasagna made with radicchio (way better than it sounds).

Other places offered pools, a welcome relief at the end of the day’s ride. Our hotel in Syracuse faced the Mediterranean Sea. Our Taormina hotel, on the last night of our bike tour, had the smallest room but the lovely outdoor terrace had a fantastic view.

Syracuse, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was my favourite Sicilian city.

My favourite city was Syracuse: on the sea, wonderful architecture, Roman ruins, fantastic food, and picturesque streets. One building reminded me of the Flat Iron Building in New York City. Everywhere you looked there were so many architectural details, wall art like fish and octopus sculptures, and fish traps hanging from balconies.

Syracuse was founded by the Corinthians in 734 BC and became one of the richest and most powerful cities on the island and of the entire Greek civilization. Historic Syracuse is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it “offers a unique testimony to the development of Mediterranean civilization over three millennia.”

Rome took over from Greece and most of what you see has their influence. A beautiful fountain was not as grand as the Trevi Fountain but was still quite spectacular and we didn’t have to share it with 1,000 other people. My best meal of the bike tour was at a seafood restaurant in Syracuse. The outside display case indicated what they served, which made me happy because I love seafood. Our guide suggested we let the chef choose the meal – and what a meal it was! Five courses, all seafood!

Taormina is a small city 850 feet above the sea.

Taormina had a pleasing mix of old Greek, Roman and Moorish influences plus modern high-end shops in the old downtown. Portions of the old city walls still exist. A cable car descends to the beaches and the train terminal. Looking south along the coast, I could still see Mount Etna.

We visited a Roman aqueduct and an amphitheatre that’s famous because the stage, the back wall of the scena and its appendages are quite well preserved. It’s built for the most part of brick and is therefore probably Roman although the plan and layout is more Greek. We sat in the amphitheatre, looking out to sea and the setting sun. 

The necropolis was another interesting sight. The tombs were built on top of one another, often containing multiple bodies. Its construction technique suggested it was used from the Byzantine era (post-Roman) to late Middle Ages.

Taormina was the end of my bike tour. My fellow cyclists departed in various directions, but I had a few more days of sightseeing.

The Aeolian Islands are complicated to get to, but well worth the effort.

I was off to the Aeolian Islands – seven sizeable islands clustered off the north end of Sicily – for two nights on Lipari and one on Stromboli. Continental Europe has just two active volcanos: Mount Etna and Mount Stromboli. (Mount Vesuvius, of Pompeii fame, last erupted in 1944.) The islands have a population of about 15,419 but attract up to 600,000 tourists a year, mostly in the summer.

It took a bit of planning to make this leg of the trip happen. I left Taormina by train to Messina and then took a bus to Milazzo, buying tickets at the walk-up counters. Milazzo’s port is big and busy and doesn’t have a lot to see except boats. But it’s the place to catch a ferry to any of the islands. I took a high-speed hydrofoil ferry that stops at each island, so I got to see several of them along the way.

Stromboli is best navigated by golf cart, not car.

I wish I could tell you more about Lipari but a medical problem sidelined me for a couple of days. I decided I needed some R and R by the hotel pool to recover from a tumble on the third day of the bike tour. I had been coming down a steep hill and swerved to avoid the cyclist in front of me who had stopped suddenly. I had fallen and slid across the pavement, using my right knee as a brake, stopping almost under a truck. After some first aid from our guide, I was able to continue riding, but my poor abraded knee was still recovering. On Lipari I decided to give it a good rest. I enjoyed a book and solitude by the pool all day. But the next day, my knee was looking pink and puffy. After a trip to the pharmacy, and some really broken Italian exchanges on my part with the pharmacist, we decided it wasn’t an infection after all but a sunburn on my new skin! How embarrassing.

After my R and R, I took a 90-minute, $18 ferry ride to Stromboli, the outermost Aeolian island. Stromboli has a population of 500 and most people get around by golf cart. The main street is a one-way loop. The photo with the golf cart shows the main drag, with a side street on the right.

My $60-a-night hotel room was small but had a splendid view from a big terrace, looking out to a rock with a lighthouse on it. I wasn’t sure where anyone could land a boat to look after it. As it turned out, I wouldn’t get much sleep in that hotel.

As volcanic islands go, Stromboli is fairly safe because the volcano erupts all the time, so the pressure is relieved.

Not to be outdone by Kathryn, who hiked an extinct volcano for her 50^th, I was going to climb an active one. Never mind that mine was only 800 metres high, and Kathryn’s Kilimanjaro climb was to 5,900 metres, mine had lava! Exploding, oozing lava!

We set off in late afternoon with a national park guide, planning to reach the summit at sunset. This would mean walking down in the dark, but the timing was perfect. As we neared the summit, we were only about 1,000 feet away from eruptions. Smoke and steam hissed constantly, like a boiling pot of water, and it smelled like sulphur and other minerals. The explosions of red-hot lava were surprisingly not that loud, but were visually spectacular. Pure fire and brimstone! We had passed a concrete shelter on the way up, which was the meeting place in case something happened, but I’m not sure how effective it would be.

I had complicated travel arrangements to get back to Rome in one day.

So why didn’t I get much sleep? I was worried about some complicated travel arrangements to get me back to Rome, starting with a 7 a.m. ferry ride. As most Italian hotels do, mine had kept my passport and the front desk was closed when I got back from my late-night stroll up Mount Stromboli. I spent the night tossing and turning, wondering how I would get my passport in time to catch the early ferry. I had to get all the way back to Rome that day to catch my flight home the next.

But the travel gods were smiling upon me. At 6 a.m. the hotelier was up and she even “drove” me on her golf cart to the ferry terminal. I took the hydrofoil back to Milazzo, caught a bus to the Catania airport, and got on my flight to Rome. All were on time and I had no issues! Truly a miracle.                    

However, my wonderful trip did end on a whimper. I arrived at the Rome airport, which is way out of town, at 10 p.m. and my flight out was at 6 a.m. the next morning. I thought I’d just stay in the airport to wait – possibly my worst travel decision ever. I can assure you those airport seats are the hardest known to man. That’s not me on the floor but that man was probably more comfortable than I was on the metal bench.

Tutto fatto (all done), al fine (the end).

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Bill visited Sicily in October 2012. Find out where we are right now by visiting our ‘Where’s Kathryn?’ page.