CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
222 km from Sortino to Sortino, about 4 h 38 of riding. On the way it passes Epipolae, Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto, Modica and back through Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Epipolae.
Above Syracuse the land rises in a long limestone terrace, a triangle of high ground pointing inland, and the ancient Greeks called it Epipolae, the place above the city. Whoever held it held Syracuse. During the great Athenian expedition against the city, between 415 and 413 BC, the fight for this plateau decided the war: the Athenians tried to wall Syracuse in from here, the Syracusans and their Spartan allies built counter-walls, and in the end the Athenian army was destroyed, with thousands of prisoners left to die in the stone quarries below. A few years later the tyrant Dionysius I enclosed the entire plateau with walls many kilometres long, and at its western tip he built the Castello Eurialo, one of the most complete Greek fortresses anywhere.
Read the complete Epipolae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Epipolae comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Modica, about halfway. Next is back through Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto sits at 130 km, about halfway. Next is back through Epipolae.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Epipolae write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Epipolae comes up about 193 km into the recorded legs. Next is Necropolis of Pantalica.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Pantalica write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Pantalica closes the day.
Necropolis of Pantalica → Epipolae is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Epipolae → Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto → Modica is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Modica → back through Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto → back through Epipolae is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Epipolae → Necropolis of Pantalica is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.