European Cycle Tour 2005

We were out scootering and who should we see out for a Sunday morning run in the streets of Rome but Jeff Wilson and Adine Wilson (nee Harper). For non kiwis - Jeff was an All Black rugby player and Adine is a Silver Fern netballer. Unfortunately we couldn't stop to talk, as they were negotiating some road obstacles and we were going in the wrong direction. . . . . .

FYI our plan is to leave Rome tomorrow (Mon 1 Aug) and head back to Viterbo then cycle to catch the ferry to Sicily. We will ride for a week or so with our friend Gilmo and then perhaps another week on our own. Ultimately we will then head back through Italy to Greece and then up the Croatian coast. Thats's the plan at this stage anyway . . . .

We were hoping to get to Turkey but we don't think we'll have enough time on this trip. For OCC people, we are hoping to be able to catch up with Meg and Hunter later in September if it works out for them with their jobs etc.

We may not be able to get to many internet cafes in Sicily, so don't be surprised if you don't hear from us for a while. . . . . . . . Ciao

Ciao from Sicily! We came over from Civitavecchia to Palermo on a 12 hour overnight ferry on 1st of August. This first photo is our siesta/lunch stop en route to Civi. It is very hot in Sicily (and Italy) and so the best plan is to ride as early as possible and then make a long lunch stop in the shade for a few hours in the hottest part of the day.

The next shot is our friend Gilmo as we headed to the ferry - taken over Carl's shoulder.

The next photo is taken at a small market place - the guys are standing in front of a fish table. It is hard to capture the essence of this market but it was full of colour and character!!

On our first day in Sicily we rode around the coast road and passed through Mondello (Sandy with Gilmo) and climbed out of Castellamare del Golfo (Sandy) and into our camping at Scopello. We had a swim at 7.30pm and it was delicious.

Day 2 saw some welcome rain showers in the morning to cool the otherwise searing temps as we climbed 500m straight up to a fantastic village called Erice. It has a neat church and great cobbled streets and fantastic views. Unfortunately our battery went flat due to the number of photos we took that day, so we'll have to get the ones from Gilmo and put these up later.

We have spent a few days in Marsala on the west coast with Gilmo's family and have experienced their wonderful hospitality. We must drag ourselves away tomorrow - Sunday - and continue on through Sicily for another week.

We have had some great gastronomical treats in Sicily in terms of "specialities of Sicily" - Gilmo introduced us to lots of yummy stuff.

This first treat was breakfast on our first day in Sicily - it's called Arancina and is made of breaded rice/egg and is filled with either meat/funghi/spinach/cheese and deep fried.

There are some lovely sweet treats here too - on the right is a lovely cannoli with a ricotta filling, the left is cassata, with an almond cake in the middle.

The third picture is of a Prickly Pear tree? Well I guess it is a cactus, the fruit is sweet with lots of pips (and prickles on the outside). We saw some plants being picked - rather carefully - with thick gloves.

Lemon trees are proliferous in Sicily (4th photo is of trees near Catania), and from them they make yummy stuff! First on a hot day in Sicily this 5th photo is a taste sensation - it is called Granita and is frozen lemon/sugar/water/egg white (not always with the egg white). It would be similar to what we call a slushy in NZ but is far superior and not as liquid!!!! It is heavenly . . . . .
The next lemon derivative is Lemon Gelato (served in a lemon skin) and Limoncello, which is a lemon liquer which is served chilled, it aids digestion!

The final photo is of Brioche filled with Gelato - Yum! One of these is for Sandy (honest)!

A drink that is found in some parts of Sicily is Spuma (not pictured) - this is like a mixture of something similar to iced tea and fanta, and is very refreshing.

Once we left Scopello we cycled to Marsala and stayed in the summer home of Gilmo's parents.

We had a wonderful visit with Gilmo's Aunt and Uncle and his cousins Gilmo (on the right of this first photo) and Alessandro (spelling?), and our Gilmo's sister Giovanna. We called in after our swim (second photo) at about 1.30 for a granita and we left after lunch and dinner at about 8.30!!!!! We had a wonderful meal (also accompanied for lunch by our Gilmo's parents) and enjoyed some Italian songs (see third photo - Gilmo is doing the actions to one of the songs!) and great fellowship.

While in Marsala we took a bus trip back to Palermo for a good look around. You'll see below what is called the fountain of shame (you might be able to see why) and then a photo from on high of my two favourite cyclists.

The last two photos are back in Marsala - the first is one of the town gates. The second is a classic scene in Sicily - the men sitting around "chewing the fat" - there are no women to be seen in these groups!!!

Once we dragged ourselves away from Marsala we headed south down the coast to Selinunte (first 3 photos) which was a Greek settlement.

Photo 4 is our road to Agrigento - yes we did ride over this, much to our trepidation!!! It was 1.4km long and took us up into the town centre. Agrigento hosts the Valley of the Temples - another Greek settlement. The next photo is of one of those temples.

From Agrigento we headed south to Gela (yet another Greek settlement which spawned Agrigento and Selinunte) and then headed inland and up to the hilltop town of Piazza Armerino. This is famous for the Villa Romano - a large Roman house with extremely well preserved mosaics. There was a festival in town that night - hence the lovely street lights in the next photo.

Carl wanted to try the race track at Pergusa but we needed to preserve our energy for the climb up to Enna at 900m above sea level. (next 2 photos)

From Enna we had a close neighbour - another hilltop town called Calascibetta - last photo.

One of the results of so much sun in Sicily is the very dry and sometimes barren countryside - this first photo is taken en route from Enna to Catania. It was a VERY hot day that day, so we were thankful that the climb to Enna the day before was rewarded by a more downhill ride to the coast!!!

En route to Catania is Mt Etna which you can see in the distance in the second photo. This mountain is very impressive and could be seen for quite a few days as we travelled past it and up the coast.

We have enjoyed all of the city gates, and Catania was no exception - this one was quite different to others that we have seen. We have also enjoyed VERY MUCH the Sicilian beaches - the water is beautiful. Photo 4 was taken from our campground - we had a little bit of sand and lots of rocks to swim off.

The coastal towns in Sicily were very very busy (and the campgrounds packed), and we passed many packed beaches, like this one we saw from on high en route to Messina. The last photo was taken as we left Messina on a 20min ferry to Reggio Calabrio in the south of the mainland.

Both along the Sicilian and Italian South Coast we encountered the Summer Holiday camping crowd! The camp grounds are huge and packed, lots of activity and extremely noisy! The first two photos are of Condofuri Marina beach - very very relaxing! We were here for the long weekend (The Feast of the Assumption) - there was live music and fireworks into the wee small hours - not so refreshing for tired cyclists!

The South Coast of Italy has beautiful beaches with crystal clear blue water. So lunch on the road is always a seaside event (next photo).

The next two photos are of Catanzaro, first looking up to the town and then the next morning looking back down towards it. Here we headed inland through the Sila National Park - we got up to about 1500m around Lake Arvo (next photo) were we stayed at Lorica on the lake edge.

The next day we had a fairly down hill day which got quite steep as we approached Congliano Calabro (Next 3 photos, the third is looking back up at Congliano Calabro and the hills we descended).

The last picture is of a billboard we have seen everywhere throughout Italy - seems that Terrestial TV has gone Digital.

This visit was a real treat!! The first photo is en route to Matera and the rest are of the township and the Sassi. The Sassi are peasant homes carved out of rock cliffs - the families would sleep in these caves with a few animals and usually about 6 children (the smaller child would sleep in the bottom drawer of a chest and a hen and chicks might sleep under the matrimonial bed). The Govt cleared them all out between 1952 and 1968, so now tourists like us get to walk around the area and see inside a recreated home.

We've also updated our favourite Sicilian foods found at the bottom of this Archive.




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