Sharon and I spent a week in November riding different areas of the eastern part of the island of Sicily. We had a fun time and both felt that we'd be glad to go back to Sicily again for bicycling -- even though it's not as convenient for us to travel to as some other places in Europe.
see Photos (http://www.roberts-1.com/t/b07/sic/s/index.htm)

We liked that Sicily has lots of nice farm-country riding, much still green in November, with even some flowers. Also hill towns in dramatic settings, and roads beside the sea. Sometimes we saw the big Mt Etna volcano, with lots of snow around its summit. Our trip was over the American holiday of Thanksgiving in late November, so we got a full week of travel from only three days taken out of vacation allotment, and the temperature in Sicily then was mostly pretty comfortable for bicycling.

For lots more details see my report (http://www.roberts-1.com/b/v/e/07b/index.htm#Sicily_07nov), which also has a link to a map of the places we visited.

Ken
http://www.roberts-1.com/t/b07/sic/i/ss/d/200x/k152-Alicudi+Filicudi+Salina_over_cactus+house_200x144. jpg (http://www.roberts-1.com/t/b07/sic/s/d/index.htm) http://www.roberts-1.com/t/b07/sic/i/ss/a/200x/209-fisherman+boy_w_bike_on_beach_Donnalucata_200x140. jpg (http://www.roberts-1.com/t/b07/sic/s/a/index.htm) http://www.roberts-1.com/t/b07/sic/i/ss/e/200x/050-brown_cow_beside_road_200x150.jpg (http://www.roberts-1.com/t/b07/sic/s/e/index.htm)

That is a terrific bunch of photos. My grt grt grt grt grandmother was from there, as are my wife's mother's side of the family so good to see. Looks like oyu had a great trip. I'll check the reports another day.

I'm curious what the weather/temperatures were like, and also why so much of the landscape is a little short on foliage, (aside fomr the obvious volcanic slopes) funny, but in places it looks like Scotland. I guess the higher elevations are a lot cooler.

I'm curious what the weather/temperatures were like, and also why so much of the landscape is a little short on foliage, (aside fomr the obvious volcanic slopes) funny, but in places it looks like Scotland.
I hadn't thought about the lack of trees. I don't think it's because of lack of rain or soil nutrients. (There definitely were forests at higher elevations).

I think at the lower elevations where we were mostly riding it's a preference to use the lower gentler terrain for fruits + vegetables and grazing. (for us it was nice to see so much green grass in late November). And I might guess perhaps a history of cutting down lots of the forests in the lower hills for the wood. Seemed like we saw lots of abandoned farm buildings in the lower hills, so perhaps that means more people are moving to the cities, so maybe the trees are now starting to grow back -- but that takes lots of years (decades?).

Selection bias in where Sharon + I choose to ride (and shoot photographs) is another factor. In the northeast USA where we live, there's lots of forests, and lots of roads that go for long distances thru mostly forest. Sharon + I tend to get bored with that kind of terrain. The first 17 forest trees are pretty, but when we're seeing the 28425th tree of the same two species on the same day of riding, that's more than we needed. So around home we're usually seeking out the roads with more farms and fewer dense forests.

When we got to Sicily we were glad to see there was so much riding in open farmland, instead of forests. We got to the edges of some areas which seemed to have lots of trees (perhaps Parco delle Madonie) -- and decided not to ride more there. I guess other riders with different preferences would have made the opposite decision.

I think temperatures during our normal riding hours in the farmland were around 12-17C / 53-63F, a bit cooler a couple of times at higher elevations -- one big descent in late afternoon felt very cold. But overall riding in Sicily seemed wamer than November riding in Provence or Isle de Corse / Corsica or around Rome or Naples / Napoli. I think the warmth is another reason we'd be glad to back there for another Thanksgiving holiday. (but is was a big shock when did our first ride back home on December 1).

Ken

Fantastic photos Ken. You did a wonderful capturing the beauty of this part of Italy. It's such a shame to know that much of Sicily has unfortunately become much like an open sewer due to the decades of corruption, organised crime and indifference......it breaks my heart. Thanks for sharing the photos.

Fine photos. You've just given me some new wallpaper.

. . . decades of corruption, organised crime and indifference......it breaks my heart.
As a short-time visitor, it's much easier to not notice problems which you have no idea how you could fix anyway. And when we did see symptoms of corruption and difference, not so difficult to choose to just keep riding a little further until scene got nice again. The two most obvious symptoms:
unfinished autostrada projects: but that matters mainly if you're driving a car (though it also affects the volume of vehicle traffic on non-autostrada roads).
a big pile of plastic bags full of garbage on the side of a city street we went by every day. Then after four days it was gone.
Actually my home area in USA has some corruption + indifference too -- and a certain amount of litter on the streets and sidewalks. Partly it's a question of degree.

As for crime, we didn't see anything made us feel unsafe out riding our bicycle (or walking on the streets at night in the ancient seacoast cities of Siracusa, Cefalu, Taormina -- maybe it helped that November is outside the obvious tourist season?)

Sicily is different from Germany, and different from lots of places in northern Italy. Sharon and I felt that made it more interesting for us to ride there.

Ken

As a short-time visitor, it's much easier to not notice problems which you have no idea how you could fix anyway. And when we did see symptoms of corruption and difference, not so difficult to choose to just keep riding a little further until scene got nice again. The two most obvious symptoms:
unfinished autostrada projects: but that matters mainly if you're driving a car (though it also affects the volume of vehicle traffic on non-autostrada roads).
a big pile of plastic bags full of garbage on the side of a city street we went by every day. Then after four days it was gone.
Actually my home area in USA has some corruption + indifference too -- and a certain amount of litter on the streets and sidewalks. Partly it's a question of degree.


The unfinshed/abondoned autostrada scenario that you mentioned is a classic tell tale sign of the Sicilian mafia's finest work. Most if not all construction/bulding companies in Sicily are mafia owned and controlled. Whenever a major public works project such as building a freeway, bridge etc etc needs to be undertaken, these companies usually pay bribes to corrupt and self serving politicians (unfortunately the very vast majority of Italian politicians) in order to secure these building contracts. A project which is then projected to cost X number of Euros to build and X number of years to complete will end up costing 100 hundred times that amount and will often never be completed because the money has naturally run out. There are building projects running all over Sicily and much of southern Italy that were begun 25 years ago and still haven't been completed. An absolutely countless amount of money has been misappropriated over the decades. It's a complete disgrace.