Hit the road

We cycled about 1000 km in total, but one third without heavy luggage since we stayed quite often for two or more days in the same agriturismo. Here is a short description of the main vertices of the route.

  1. From Catania Airport we went south to Lenthini and then to Floridia.
  2. Having our accomodation in Floridia, we did daily trips to Sortino, Syracuse and Pantalica.
  3. Then we continued south via Noto to Marzamemi.
  4. From Marzamemi, we enjoyed a day trip to the most southern point of Sicily and the natural parc "Riserva Vendicari".
  5. Then we cycled via Modica and Ragusa to Comiso.
  6. From Comiso, our way took us north to Piazza Armenia and Nicosia.
  7. Then eastward through the Nebrodi to Bronte, Randazzo and Taromina at the east cost of Sicily.
  8. Then a few kilometers back westward to Linguaglossa and the Mt. Etna.
  9. And finally back south to Catania and Catania Airport.

The following interactive map shows the route in detail. If you click on the hyperlinks in the sidebar, you will get more information on the day trip including an elevation profile.

Recommendation

Actually we were quiet happy with our route and can recommend it with one small modification. Avoid cycling in downtown Catania by any means! We expected it to be less "enjoyable" to cycle in Catania centre and therefore chose the shortest route through the city on our way back to the airport, but even this was more than I could stand. Now don't think that I am a sissy. I can cope with cars or even trucks passing me with fairly high speed on busy roads. But cars overtaking me at the same time on the left and on the right side or totally ignoring red traffic lights is too much. By the way, how often do you see cars lying upside down on an inner-city junction in perfect weather conditions? Guess where we saw one.

If we had had one day more, we would have probably cycled from Linguaglossa to Nicolosi and spent another day on Mt. Etna. From Nicolosi, one shall be able to get to the airport without cycling through downtown Catania.

GPS Tracks

GPS tracks are available here. Please note that we haven't cleaned them up and parts are missing (Acireale to Catania Airport and partly Carlentini to Floridia and Floridia to Syracuse).

Summary of Daytrips

Here is a condensed overview of the day trips that lack geographic information.