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 457 km round trip from Catania - roughly 8 h 15 in the saddle. On the way it passes Caltagirone, Villa Romana del Casale, Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto and back through Villa Romana del Casale. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 Caltagirone.
Caltagirone is a city built on ceramics. Perched on a ridge in the hills of south-east Sicily, it has been making pottery since ancient times, and the tradition is everywhere: majolica tiles on balconies, bridges and church domes, pottery shops lining the streets and a museum devoted to the craft. Its most famous sight is the Scalinata di Santa Maria del Monte, a staircase of well over a hundred steps climbing from the lower town to a church at the top, each riser decorated with hand-painted tiles in different patterns and colours. In late July, for the feast of Saint James, the staircase is lit with thousands of oil lamps arranged in designs, a magical sight.
Read the complete Caltagirone write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Caltagirone comes up 55 km in. Next is Villa Romana del Casale.
Somewhere in the fourth century AD, a very rich Roman, perhaps a senator or an imperial official, built a country villa in the hills of central Sicily and covered its floors with mosaics. The Villa Romana del Casale, just outside Piazza Armerina, has some of the finest and most extensive Roman floor mosaics anywhere, around 3,500 square metres, inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1997. Buried by a landslide in the Middle Ages, the villa was rediscovered and excavated mainly in the twentieth century, and the mosaics were preserved remarkably well.
Read the complete Villa Romana del Casale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
110 km in you reach Villa Romana del Casale.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Romana del Casale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa Romana del Casale, about halfway. Next is Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto.
On 11 January 1693, a catastrophic earthquake struck southeastern Sicily, destroying dozens of towns and killing tens of thousands of people. What happened next is one of the great chapters in the history of town planning. Noto, which stood on a hill some kilometres away, was abandoned, and a new town was built from scratch on a gentler slope, with a grid of streets, grand stairways, churches and palaces, all in the soft, honey-coloured local limestone that glows gold and pink at sunset. Together with seven other towns rebuilt after the earthquake, including Ragusa, Modica and Scicli, Noto was listed by UNESCO in 2002 as the Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto.
Read the complete Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto sits at 221 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Romana del Casale.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Romana del Casale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa Romana del Casale comes up 276 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Romana del Casale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
331 km in you reach back through Villa Romana del Casale. Next is back through Caltagirone.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Caltagirone write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Caltagirone, 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 457 km.
Catania → Caltagirone is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Caltagirone → Villa Romana del Casale is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Romana del Casale → Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto is 113 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto → back through Villa Romana del Casale is 113 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Villa Romana del Casale → back through Caltagirone is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Caltagirone → Catania is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.