Palazzolo Acreide: into the icebox

April 17, 2019

I’m sick of talking about my digestive system, and you’re probably sick of reading about it, so no update at the moment. We’ll report back when there’s something newsworthy or definitive to pass on.

After an eat-in breakfast at our apartment, I made a quick trip back to the cathedral for a look inside before the crowds arrived. My timing was perfect, purely by chance. The ticket office hadn’t opened yet, but the attendant was just setting up and waved me to go inside. When I entered, it was still dimly lit; but a minute later the lights came on and illuminated the huge interior. I was the only visitor, but others were there - I wasn’t sure of what was happening initially but it gradually became apparent that a dress rehearsal was just beginning, of a charming young choral group accompanied by an acoustic guitarist and an expressive dancer (shown in the video below). It felt like a perfect time and way to experience one of the great cathedrals of the world.

Piazza Duomo is almost empty this morning, and the last umbrellas are being furled after a brief morning shower. By the time I emerge from the cathedral the crowds are already beginning to gather.

The south aisle. Is there another cathedral in the world so obviously built around a Greek temple like this? Those columns have been standing here for 2,500 years.

In Syracuse Cathedral, setting up the day’s floral display.

A few last pointers before the dress rehearsal

We leave our great Syracuse apartment for the last time (sorry, folks - you can’t crash this pad with us after all) and head for Palazzolo Acreide, 2,200’ up in the Iblean Mountains. Like Noto, Scicli and Caltagirone, this is another town covered under the UNESCO Sicilian baroque designation. We look forward to some time this afternoon wandering its streets and gazing at its monuments.

The weather is fine when we start out - warm, sunny, windless) and once we get past the usual city madness we enjoy six lovely and flat miles along the coast on a too-short cycle route east of town. This is the same route Rachael walked yesterday while I was sleeping it off.

Leaving Syracuse on Rossana Majorca, the too short cycling path east of Syracuse.

Rossana Majorca is a short but lovely ride, along the route of a former rail line. Good start, but they need to punch it a bit further east. All the way to Catania would be perfect.

The bike path ends too soon, and dumps us on SP114, the busy coast highway. Not much fun, but only about a mile later we arrive at our cutoff and break east and away from the coast. We enjoy a few miles that modestly climb away from the sea, and then settle into the Apano gorge and for the next several miles cross over a series of three or four rollers - climb three hundred feet, lose them back, repeat.

We’re only about fifteen miles east of our second day ride from Noto, but the country is quite different - more wooded, less open. The landscape is similarly rugged, but it’s not quite as evocative when views are muted or masked by the trees. To our right is a ridge a thousand or more feet high. One of our route choices for the day would have put us up there, but we’re quite happy not to have taken it.

One thing to finally comment on here too is the garbage situation. In spots it’s really pretty appalling, as you’ll see in one of the day’s videos. We’ve seen this all along actually but didn’t care to comment on it - but it seems to be worse as we move east. I remember the Mathers Observing this too on their tour last year, and I was surprised by it then because we didn’t remember it that way at all. I wonder if something has changed over the last few years.

We didn’t realize we were riding on a barricaded road until we came to its western end and found it blocked. No wonder it was so quiet. We had to remove the panniers and lift the bikes over the barricade, to the ceaseless chorus of four barking dogs.

The land is much greener here than just ten or fifteen miles to the west.

The Apano River is nearly dry, but the gorge is quite lush, cultivated heavily in oranges and lemons.

About halfway through the day’s ride, and the fun ends. We cross the Apano on a rude bridge, round a bend, and immediately face the start of the day’s main work, a 1,500 foot climb over five miles. I’ve actually been dreading this climb a bit, because I’m well off full strength. The climb averages out to about a six percent grade, but statistics are deceiving. This one is very irregular, and the first lift is in the 15% range. I take one look at it, immediately say ‘no way’ to myself, and decide to take a hike. I’m not alone - Rachael comes to the same conclusion when she arrives, and we both push for about a quarter mile.

After that though, it backs off and isn’t really that bad. We’ve been watching the skies grow dark for about the last hour and feel pressured to keep the best pace we can, so we bike steadily once we’re in the saddle again. Our reward: we arrive in Palazzolo Acreide dry. The first light sprinkles appear just as we’re pushing up another killer, the steep lava block street I’ve for some mad reason chosen as our gateway into town.

Looking back across the Apano before the day’s big climb begins.

It’s no fun pushing a loaded bike up a 15% grade, but at least I can enjoy this family of goats walking up the road just ahead of me as I slowly trudge along.

Now this was an especially fun stretch. Not all that steep, but the 2” gaps between the slabs slowed us down a bit.

At the top, our town comes into the sight on the far right, still six miles off. It would have been fine with us if we could just keep this elevation, but there’s another small gorge to be crossed first.

Well! We haven’t done this for awhile. Thank you, Chief Navigator!

So, we arrive at our apartment just as the light mist starts amplifying to something more like rain. Rachael gets out the phone to call our host so he can come over and let us in, but there’s no cell service. It’s getting cold, it’s getting wet, and we’re getting unhappier by the minute. I set off to find someone with a phone who can call for us, and luckily find a young girl walking down our street who indeed has a phone and is willing to help. We reach Marco, and he says he’ll be there as soon as he can. We thank our young friend again and then go hide under a narrow awning waiting for Marco.

A poor time to find we have no cell phone service.

Our eighteen inch overhang is just sufficient to keep us and our bikes out of the cold rain. Good thing it’s a windless day. Too bad though that we had to cower here for twenty minutes, steadily growing colder.

Fifteen minute later Marco arrives, let’s us in, orients us, and leaves. Nice guy, actually. Perhaps it’s not his fault that he’s left an icebox in his wake, one that takes the rest of the day to warm up (not quite accurate - it never really does warm up suitably).

There’s a portable space heater, which is exactly right - it heats its own space, but nothing further than about one foot from it. I browse without success to find a manual for it, certain that we must just be failing to understand how to use it.

There is a gas powered range and tea, so we could heat ourselves with tea if we could light the range, but we can’t. I browse without success to find a manual for that too.

There is a huge, king size bed, a warm blanket, and an electric mattress pad that covers half of the ice cold, slow to thaw mattress. Rachael takes the first shower, announcing happily that the water is hot, and hops under the covers on the warm side of the bed.

I finally give up on my futile manual search and strip off my damp, cold bike clothes to hop in the shower myself. It is hot, for about a minute - just long enough for me to lather my hair before it too turns ice-cold. I screech, force myself to rinse my hair and then quickly dry off on the only large towel (uniquely, the place comes with only a single set of towels, and Rachael kindly left me the large one) and then scramble under the covers shivering, crowding Rachael on the warm side and avoiding the icy side.

We stay there for the rest of the afternoon, waiting for the restaurants to open.

What we saw of the UNESCO-sited Sicilian baroque town of Palazzolo Acreide this afternoon.

We stored the bikes in a nearby apartment, also belonging to our host. He saw that we have no kickstand, so he propped them together like this. We’ve never tried this - it will be interesting to see if they’re in a heap on the ground tomorrow. And yes, we know about clickstands but have never carried one along.

Eventually, Rachael decides to call Marco to ask how to light the range. He tries without success to explain it, and then offers to come over to show us. After experimenting a bit himself he realizes that he has not turned on the gas. There’s a gas canister beneath the range, and the valve needs to be opened. So there will be tea after all.

Before he leaves, I hopefully ask him about the space heater also. He looks at it, feels it, and says we’ve already got it on full strength; and encourages us to believe it is adequate.

He leaves, and we have tea. Rachael has hers in bed. I have mine below (it’s a split level unit), practically sitting on top of the space heater. Then I too retire to the crowded warm side of the bed and we continue waiting for dinner.

Dinner is great, actually. We share delicious bowls of fava bean and chick pea soup, and then each have a fine pasta. We walk back the dark streets to our room, brush our teeth, and hop back under the covers.

I fall asleep fitfully, with thoughts of dying in the night from natural gas asphyxiation, or in the morning from an explosion when we light the stove again for the morning coffee.

But hey! The WiFi is great here!

Stepping out for dinner. We’re on a very pretty street here, just above town. It has a different look here. This could almost be in the Czech Republic if it weren’t for the black lava pavers.

Palazzolo Acreide has quite an evocative charm after dark.

Walking back to our icebox. The road angling down to the left is the one we pushed up when we arrived in town.

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Ride stats today: 36 miles, 3,900’; for the tour: 646 miles, 41,200’

Today's ride: 36 miles (58 km)
Total: 646 miles (1,040 km)

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Jen RahnLove the Bad and the Ugly video .. the garbage was much worse than I had imagined!

Hope you're enjoying a better day today.
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5 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Jen RahnWe did have a better day, thanks! Health is improving, cycling was easier, trash was sparser and easier to look beyond. Such a beautiful place, if you can keep the right focus!
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5 years ago