Why this ride
From Modica it runs 139 km to Modica; allow about 3 h 14 of riding. On the way it passes Palazzolo Acreide, Necropolis of Pantalica and back through Palazzolo Acreide.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Modica and Necropolis of Pantalica
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 139 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 14
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Modica
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Modica is where the day begins. Next is Palazzolo Acreide.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Palazzolo Acreide comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Necropolis of Pantalica.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Necropolis of Pantalica. Next is back through Palazzolo Acreide.
4. back through Palazzolo Acreide
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palazzolo Acreide write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Palazzolo Acreide, late in the day. Next is Modica.
5. Modica
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Modica write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Modica. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Modica to Palazzolo Acreide
Modica → Palazzolo Acreide is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palazzolo Acreide to Necropolis of Pantalica
Palazzolo Acreide → Necropolis of Pantalica is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Necropolis of Pantalica to back through Palazzolo Acreide
Necropolis of Pantalica → back through Palazzolo Acreide is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Palazzolo Acreide to Modica
back through Palazzolo Acreide → Modica is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.