Sicily, anyone?

I am thinking of a bike trip to Sicily next year. Anybody have any comments
I need to hear?

thanks,

Pat

Pat wrote:
I am thinking of a bike trip to Sicily next year. Anybody have any comments
I need to hear?

Preface all ot the following with "in my experience"...

It's got lots of ancient Grrek ruins, if you like that sort of thing.
Siracusa has an archeological park. Agrigento is crawling with
tourists, though the row of Greek temples on the ridge overlooking the
Mediterranean is spectacular (you can't actually walk in the
buildings). On the southwest coast, Selinunte is (or used to be)
completely abandoned and a great place to wander among the remnants of
the Greek settlement. Segesta, just west of Palermo, has a nice temple
and amphitheater. Taormina on the NE coast is very jet-set, but is the
site of the amphitheater seen in Woody Allen's "Mighty Aphrodite".

Many locations in Sicily are the associated with ancient Greek myths.
The straits between the mainland and the island are where the twin
perils Scylla and Charybdis were. The coast between Taormina and
Catania has rocks standing vertically out of the sea, which are the
projectiles the blinded Cyclops threw at Ulysses and his men as they
escaped. Lake Pegusa near Enna, in the geographic center of Sicily, is
where Hades kidnapped Persephone and dragged her to the underground to
be his queen.

Palermo may not be too bike-friendly, but the Norman-Moorish royal
palace and the cathedral at Monreale are well worth visitng.

If you're riding self-supported, plan carefully and have backup food
and water. Outside the towns, there's basically nothing except the
occasional shepherd or farmer tending a field. Outside the more
cosmopolitan towns, unaccompanied women cyclists will be (a) hit upon
by men, even if they're wearing an obvious wedding band, (b) regarded
as "loose" for not staying at home and tending the kitchen and babies,
especially by the older women! A lot of older people in the smaller
towns and villages speak only local dialect, not standard Italian, much
less English, and knowledge of Italian won't necessarily help you
understand dialect. On the other hand, you may well bump into a local
who used to live and/or work in the States and speaks perfect American
English, with an American accent, no less. Yes, Sicilians really do
talk with their hands, and you will likely see men greet each other by
kissing cheeks.

Food is generally superb, with emphasis on vegetables, tomato sauce,
olive oil and seafood (in contrast to meat, cream, butter, as you might
encounter in the north). Siclian pizza is more like what Americans
think of as pizza than what you'd find in Tuscany or the north.
Breakfast is typically just a pastry and espresso unless you're staying
at a place which caters to international tourists or business people.
Lunch is strictly from noon to about 2. If you don't find a place to
eat lunch during those hours, good luck finding nourishment until
dinnertime, which isn't until 8 pm -- unless, of course, you've shopped
ahead to make your own picnic lunch. Oh yeah, most stores will close
promptly at noon including supermarkets, bakeries, delis (alimentari)
and grocery shops. Many businesses are closed on Monday (as well as
Sunday) -- this includes smaller hotels and pensiones; i.e., no staff
at reception.

The interior reminds me of California: scrub grass, semi-desert, with
occasional farms growing prickly pear cactus. Some parts of the coast
are really ugly because of huge petrochemical plants, generally in the
southeast.