A Parched Province
Italy (Sicily) Stage 06 – San Leone to Licata 40 Km (Sun 27 May 2018)
Weather: 16⁰C min – 24⁰C max, mostly sunny
“If you rest, you rust” ~ Helen Hayes
Breakfast at the delightful B&B le Notti di Morfeo was superb, with all sorts of tasty treats including the local specialty Cannoli Siciliani and Sabrina’s home-made biscotti. What made it even more enjoyable was chatting to Sabrina and her son Ricardo, later joined by a couple from Florida.
In contrast to the glorious sunny weather I have been enjoying all week, today the sky was smeared with smokey grey cloud. This is not conducive to good photography, but it didn’t really matter much because there was very little good subject matter anyway.
Looking for the most scenic route I headed off along an isolated back road, but I soon came to the conclusion that there was nothing to see but long dead grass and weeds. The country around this area is so parched I don’t know how the olive trees manage to survive without water. I decided that if there was nothing attractive to see then I might as well revert to riding on the smooth SS115, which at least provided ideal riding conditions. There were even some tunnels which saved me climbing a few hills.
Licata, in the Sicilian Province of Agrigento, is an interesting old town of about 34,000 people, controlled at various stages by the Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks and Normans. Arriving in the town at about noon, it was too early to check-in so I found a bar-caffe that served an icy Granita Limone which I enjoyed while watching parishioners spill out of the church opposite, dressed up in their immaculate Sunday best.
Refreshed, I made my way to the Stazione to buy a bicycle ticket for the Regional Velocite train I have booked to take me to Ragusa tomorrow afternoon, but being Sunday it was closed. Hopefully this type of train carries bicycles, because I don’t fancy staying at Gela tomorrow night then having to climb the 600m hill to Ragusa the next day. Staying two nights at the interesting old town of Ragusa has much more appeal.
While the scenery would have to be described as uninteresting, any ride is a good ride when touring in Sicily.
G’day BB, mate, what a 24 hours…… our team lost (unfairly) then this disappointing ride. We are part of the Liverpool family, we take these thing on the chin and move forward…….YNWA.
Never mind, there are better days ahead.I hope Ursula is OK.
Glad to hear you finally got a good breakfast 🙂 Are you sure riding through those tunnels is safe, though (convenient as they are)?
Yes, don’t worry daughter … the tunnels have a shoulder to ride on and I always make sure I turn my tail light on.
Yet another lonely ride through tunnels as long as you are safe. I hope these tunnels are not like that other place (which I cannot remember) where there were no shoulder. Have fun but be sensible and be safe.