May 14th Portapalo to Avola

Another lovely day and no wind. Shop in Porto which is a lovely chilled place with a nice pedestrian centre. Then off to Avola. Straight road out of town. After about 20km could see a town up on the hill, Nota. It did look nice but up a hill and not in the direction we were heading. Then comes the phrase......do you fancy a coffee up there? After some persuasion we headed up. An absolutely stunning town,some incredible buildings and unbeknownst to us probably the biggest weekend of the calender. There was a festival of flowers which entailed lots of images in a row made of flowers. After this we headed to Avola in search of a campsite, cycled about 20km in circles following signs for one that was closed! Eventually with good old Google at a cafe found the site we had originally wanted, worth it as very laid back with a fridge. Happy days.

May 15th Avola to Siracusa

Short ride to small campsite on a farm. Basic, but just a few km from the historic port of Siracusa. Afternoon spent exploring here and sending a video birthday message to Harry. Relaxed night of scrabble.

May 16th Siracusa to Taormina. 

Early start to get the 8.40 train up the coast. Alighted at Acireale and then a 40km cycle to a site we had been told about by John and Christine in Punta Secca. Etna first view from the train. Nice cycle and lovely site with a quirky owner. As promised! Chilled evening. Phone call to give birthday greetings.

May 17th Taormina

Cycle panier free up the switch backs to Taormina, the film site of the godfather films. Very busy with coachloads of tourists, understandably as a beautiful place. Does make us realise that we have been off the tourist trail, thus far in all the islands. Back down to beach and cheaper coffees! Chill on beach for me with painting done by Dave. 

May 19th Taormina to mainland Italy 

Off early to Messina. Really flat 50km along mainly promenades. Lovely coffee stop (expensive again) at the bottom of Taormina but got a free orange and along the way free tomatoes as I tried to buy just two off the back of a van. Arrived in Messina, not the nicest of places, where we had a room booked. However, luckily for us, my card hadn't been accepted, problem their end I think, to we took the opportunity to jump on the short ferry to Villa San Giovanni where we were very kindly helped in a cafe to use their computer to find a place in the lovely seaside resort of Sicilia. 7km cycle and with more aid from a local chap we found the place. Start of the Italian phase.

May 19th Sicilia to Rosarno

Rain as forecast to start the day which with a 10km climb was really appreciated. The rest of the 50km cycle was on the flat. Found the campsite easily, more expensive than we have been used to, but this one has an shower in the locked toilet. I was soooo excited. Lovely pool too to finish the day nicely. Spent the evening working out route and campsites. Still early in the Italian season we realise, more trains may be required!

May 20th 

Very wet morning. In the end we decided to stay and chill and finish researching the campsite option. Dried up enough to attempt to get some things dry that had unfortunately been left out. Good to do pretty much nothing for just one day.

May 12th punta to Scicli

Sad farewell to the best campsite and our toilet and them lovely bread man and the efficient host. Hot,hot day today and humid with a haze to the light. New tyre purchased in Santo Croce then on to scicli. What a stunning town. A UNESCO site for very good reasons. Whilst eating our lunch we heard a passing Italian telling some English speaking women that filming was taking place at the town hall that doubles as montalbanos police station!!!!! Then came the most surreal 2hrs. We managed to see the main characters and got pictures with them!!!! Chatted to a lovely couple, the female one saying that last time she had done anything like this was when the Beatles were filming hard days night! We then felt the only way to end this fab day was to stay in sicli, at cada de montalbano. A lovely apartment. Then we brushed up and had a meal out for the first time since the Dordogne. An excellent day!!!

May 12th sicli to simeria

Another hazy day. Short cycle down to the coast. Tired today after the antics of the previous day. Campsite OK but not a patch on our previous campsite. Early night called for to recover.

May 11th

Cycled to Ragusa today. Coffee stop at Santa Croce Carmina which is a lovely little town with a very busy little main square frequented by lots of more mature men sitting under the shade of the trees. We then continued to Ragusa, a steady uphill if about 25km. Ragusa appears to be split into 3 sections, a less than attractive urban sprawl, an old town on the grid system lots of Sicilian towns have and lastly the true old Ragusa. Unfortunately once we had trapsed through the first two and then eventually found the third, with the iconic view granted, we couldn't face going down to go back up into it!!! Boiling hot. So we had something to eat too a couple of photos and turned round!!!! Then luckily it was a free wheel down to Marina la Ragusa. Just up the road from punta la secca. A sleek resort obviously popular with wind and kite surfers. Back to camp for last time. Got some handy info from some of our fellow campers, then shattered, off to bed.

May 10th Punta Secca

Trip to Montalbano village and house. Lots of others obviously do the same pilgrimage. Chilled on beach while Dave did two paintings. Very nice relaxing day. Though village obviously attracts lots of Mont fans, not touristy at all. Back to campsite and sorted lots of things including putting lovely clean clothes away. Little things......

May 7th Agrigento to Falconara

Rainy and dull day today and fairly uninspiring cycling. Area obviously very fertile with lots of agricultural farming under big polytunnels, which do detract from the scenery, but obviously needs must. Stopped in licarta, which was handy as big market allowing purchase of charger and bit of a food shop. Arrived eventually at the only campsite possible. Again one that only offers half of the things advertised and a bit rundown. Luckily rain stopped and it also offered somewhere to sit in the evening.

May 8th Falconera to Punta Bracatto

Blue skies lifted spirits. 70km cycle today, so needed. Into a head wind to Gela, which once we found centre was lovely. Very grumpy service for the cheapest coffee yet and with rather a fabulous view of the Duomo. Then back on the road to Scoglitti. Nice little harbour. Only negative of this area, as much of Sicily, so much rubbish on the sides of the roads. Then final cycle to Punta, or Montalbano land!!!! Luckily first campsite we came across was deserted in reception as we then moved on to the BEST campsite EVER!!!!!! Spotless, well organised, lovely pitches and your very own lockable toilet, with the nicest beach right there. Immediately we knew more than one night here. Library, breadman, veggie man, everything one could desire. Celebrated with a couple of beers at the bar on the beach.

May 4th Manfi to somewhere near Ribera

Cycled first to Scoccia. Coffee on the old port. Characterful place where men outnumber women 100 to 1. Then headed up to find a supermarket,to no avail. Luckily Ribera only small detour ahead. Only option larger road but these seem to be sparsely populated by really heavy traffic so not bad. The slight detour to Ribera was up a hill. Quite a nice place and more open than others in siesta, and luckily a Lidl (new favourite shop) open all hours to do a mammoth shop whilst we can. Cycle down the hill again to campsite. Disappointingly no pool, down to the weather said the patron, Dave reckons more to do with lack of tiles and amount of work needing doing everywhere! But a good pitch and fab showers, so all good.

 May 5th and 6th Ribera to Agrigento

Back onto main road with a stop at montallegro for coffee. A ice little place and complimentary panne au chocolat too, which was scrummy. Then a cycle into Porto Empedocle, which is lovely. Quite grand pedestrianised area. On the way in passed some unusual white cliffs,which literally looked like white petrified lava. Escaped the chat up by the resident tooth deprived drinking chap to the campsite at Santa Leone. So nice we immediately decided to stay two nights. Quick sojourn to the beach, where we could see more white cliffs in the distance. Chilled evening, scrabble score evening out. 

May 5th and 6th Ribera to Agrigento

Back onto main road with a stop at montallegro for coffee. A ice little place and complimentary panne au chocolat too, which was scrummy. Then a cycle into Porto Empedocle, which is lovely. Quite grand pedestrianised area. On the way in passed some unusual white cliffs,which literally looked like white petrified lava. Escaped the chat up by the resident tooth deprived drinking chap to the campsite at Santa Leone. So nice we immediately decided to stay two nights. Quick sojourn to the beach, where we could see more white cliffs in the distance. Chilled evening, scrabble score evening out. 


Next day set off with best intentions of being cultural, to the Valle Dei Templi. It was so easy to see these Greek ruins from the road we decided to forgo the 20 euro admission. Then on up to Agrigento. Hot, big hill. Coffee at the top. Nice but not printable for Dave so back down to beach where he did painting there. Early night as off again next day.