Ortygia and Palazzolo Acreide

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Ortygia

   Ortygia is the island where Syracuse began. Greek colonists from Corinth landed here in 734 BC, drawn by a harbour and a freshwater spring, and the town they founded grew into the most powerful city in the Greek world, rivalling Athens. The island is small enough to walk across in fifteen minutes and holds an astonishing density of history. The cathedral is built into the columns of a Greek temple of Athena, so the Doric pillars are still visible in its walls. A few steps away, the freshwater spring of Arethusa still bubbles up beside the sea, with papyrus plants growing in the pool.

   Read the complete Ortygia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ortygia is where the day begins. Next is Necropolis of Pantalica.

2. 2. 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

   Necropolis of Pantalica comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Palazzolo Acreide.

3. 3. 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

   about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Palazzolo Acreide. Next is back through Necropolis of Pantalica.

4. 4. back through Necropolis of Pantalica

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   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

   back through Necropolis of Pantalica, late in the day. Next is Ortygia.

5. 5. Ortygia

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ortygia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Ortygia. That is the ride.