Why this ride
From Palermo it runs 426 km to Palermo; allow about 6 h 17 of riding. It goes by way of Cefalù Cathedral, Villa Romana del Casale and back through Cefalù Cathedral. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Palermo Cathedral and Villa Romana del Casale
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 426 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 17
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Sicily Madonie Mountain Road
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 108 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 138 km
- Named road
- Sicily Madonie Mountain Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Palermo Cathedral
Palermo's cathedral is a building that has never settled on one identity, and that is its charm. The present church was begun in 1185 under Walter of the Mill, the English archbishop, on the site of an earlier mosque that had itself replaced a Christian church. Since then each century has added something: Gothic towers, a Catalan-style porch, a neoclassical dome in the 1700s, and a southern front that looks like a North African fortress dressed for a festival. The mixture is deliberate in neither case and somehow works in both.
Read the complete Palermo Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Palermo Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Cefalù Cathedral.
2. Cefalù Cathedral
Cefalù is where Sicily squeezes a medieval town between a rock and a beach. The Rocca, a limestone crag, rises a steep couple of hundred metres straight behind the old centre, and the cathedral sits at its foot, a heavy, golden-grey Norman building with two square towers that you can see from the coastal highway long before you reach the town. According to tradition King Roger II promised to build it after surviving a storm at sea, and work began in 1131. Whatever the truth of the vow, the church is a statement of power by a Norman king who ruled Sicily and wanted it to look Mediterranean, not merely northern.
Read the complete Cefalù Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cefalù Cathedral comes up about 77 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Romana del Casale.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 215 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Romana del Casale. Next is back through Cefalù Cathedral.
4. back through Cefalù Cathedral
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cefalù Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cefalù Cathedral, late in the day. Next is Palermo Cathedral.
5. Palermo Cathedral
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palermo Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Palermo Cathedral. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Palermo Cathedral to Cefalù Cathedral
Palermo Cathedral → Cefalù Cathedral is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cefalù Cathedral to Villa Romana del Casale
Cefalù Cathedral → Villa Romana del Casale is 138 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Villa Romana del Casale to back through Cefalù Cathedral
Villa Romana del Casale → back through Cefalù Cathedral is 142 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cefalù Cathedral to Palermo Cathedral
back through Cefalù Cathedral → Palermo Cathedral is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.