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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
365 km from Modica to Modica, about 7 h 35 of riding. On the way it passes Palazzolo Acreide, Militello Val di Catania, Catania and Mount Etna. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 40 km this is Sicily Etna Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Modica was destroyed in 1693, rebuilt in a hurry, and the result is one of the most dramatic baroque towns in Europe. A great earthquake that January killed tens of thousands across south-eastern Sicily, and the towns of the Val di Noto rose again in a new style, with curved facades, carved balconies and grotesque stone faces looking down from the corners. UNESCO listed eight of them together in 2002, and Modica is one of the finest. It occupies two steep ridges and the gorge between them, and the houses climb up the sides in layers, so that a walk through the streets is mostly a matter of steps.
Read the complete Modica write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Modica is where the day begins. Next is Palazzolo Acreide.
Long before the Baroque churches, there were the Greeks. In the seventh century BC, settlers from Syracuse founded a hilltop outpost here called Akrai, controlling the routes into the interior of Sicily. The remains of their town lie on the hill above modern Palazzolo Acreide: a small, beautifully preserved Greek theatre with views over the hills, stone quarries turned into burial chambers, and the Santoni, a series of rock-cut figures of the goddess Cybele, carved into a cliff face, weathered but still powerful.
Read the complete Palazzolo Acreide write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Palazzolo Acreide comes up 40 km in. 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.
79 km in you reach Militello Val di Catania. Next is Catania.
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, about halfway. 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 sits at 158 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Catania comes up 198 km in. 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.
237 km in you reach back through Militello Val di Catania. Next is back through Palazzolo Acreide.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palazzolo Acreide write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Palazzolo Acreide, late in the day. Next is Modica.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Modica write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 365 km.
Modica → Palazzolo Acreide is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palazzolo Acreide → Militello Val di Catania is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Militello Val di Catania → Catania is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Catania → Mount Etna is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mount Etna → back through Catania is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Catania → back through Militello Val di Catania is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Militello Val di Catania → back through Palazzolo Acreide is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Palazzolo Acreide → Modica is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.