CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 403 km round trip from Catania - roughly 7 h 40 in the saddle. On the way it passes Mount Etna, Militello Val di Catania, Necropolis of Pantalica and back through Militello Val di Catania. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 38 km this is Sicily Etna Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Catania has been knocked down and rebuilt so many times that it has made a style out of resilience. Lava from Etna overran parts of the city in 1669, and then in 1693 a devastating earthquake flattened it almost entirely. The rebuilding produced one of the most striking Baroque cities in Italy, built with dark grey lava stone set off against pale limestone, with wide straight streets designed to offer escape routes in future disasters. The centre is part of the Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto World Heritage Site, and Etna looms over everything, often smoking at the end of the Via Etnea.
Read the complete Catania write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Catania is where the day begins. Next is Mount Etna.
Etna is not so much a mountain as a living presence that dominates eastern Sicily. Europe's highest active volcano rises over 3,300 metres above Catania, its height changing as eruptions add and remove material, and it smokes, rumbles and occasionally spits fire with a regularity that the locals regard with a mix of reverence and resignation.
Read the complete Mount Etna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mount Etna comes up 37 km in. Next is Mount Etna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mount Etna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
75 km in you reach Mount Etna. Next is Militello Val di Catania.
Militello in Val di Catania is a small town in the hills south-west of Catania, in eastern Sicily, surrounded by orange groves and olive trees, with Mount Etna visible on the horizon. Like many towns in this part of Sicily, it was devastated by the earthquake of 1693, which destroyed much of the south-east of the island, and was rebuilt in the Baroque style. Its churches and palaces are part of the UNESCO-listed Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto, inscribed in 2002, together with Noto, Ragusa, Modica, Caltagirone and others.
Read the complete Militello Val di Catania write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Militello Val di Catania, about halfway. Next is Necropolis of Pantalica.
Thousands of small square doorways riddle the limestone cliffs above the Anapo and Calcinara valleys, like the windows of a vast abandoned apartment block. These are rock-cut tombs, some five thousand of them, carved by the people who lived at Pantalica between roughly the thirteenth and seventh centuries before Christ. Together with Syracuse, the necropolis is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is one of the most evocative places in Sicily, in a gorge of the Hyblaean Mountains west of Syracuse, between the towns of Sortino and Ferla.
Read the complete Necropolis of Pantalica write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Pantalica sits at 149 km, about halfway. Next is back through Militello Val di Catania.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Militello Val di Catania write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Militello Val di Catania comes up 186 km in. Next is back through Mount Etna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mount Etna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
224 km in you reach back through Mount Etna. Next is back through Mount Etna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mount Etna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mount Etna, late in the day. Next is Catania.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Catania write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 403 km.
Catania → Mount Etna is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mount Etna → Militello Val di Catania is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Militello Val di Catania → Necropolis of Pantalica is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Necropolis of Pantalica → back through Militello Val di Catania is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Militello Val di Catania → back through Mount Etna is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Mount Etna → Catania is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.