The second half of our Edelweiss tour was all about the beautiful island of Sicily. This somewhat ignored part of Italy is home to the mafia, Mt. Etna, an excellent little-known pasta called gnocchetti, and an agricultural economy. It’s a bit less well-kept than the rest of Italy — we’re guessing due to the lower economic level of this out-of-the-way place that doesn’t get the same tourism that the rest of Italy gets.

We set off from Taormina and headed west, skirting around the northern side of Mt. Etna. We got a great view of the volcano’s summit, which was covered with snow and appeared to be blowing steam out of the top. Makes sense, since it erupted just a week earlier. Ash everywhere, but a beautiful, lush green countryside. We circled around to the little town of Corleone, famous home of the mafia and an incredibly sleepy small town, and headed to the southern coast. The countryside reminded us a little of Tuscany, with lots of rolling hills, walled cities on high bluffs, vineyards, and lemon orchards.

Our trip home was rather uneventful. Another great trip in the books. Where to now? 🙂

We met our Edelweiss tour group on Thursday afternoon, October 28, in Rome. Good group, as usual from all over the world. We are from U.S., Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Qatar, and Jordan.

First full day was Rome to Pompeii. Pretty basic ride. What I remember is all of the greenhouses and gardens we passed – carrots, tomatoes, herbs, lettuce.

Third day was Pompeii to Aquafredda. We stopped at Greek ruins that looked a lot like the Parthenon. We also enjoyed the classic Edelweiss picnic lunch today, next to a pretty little beach. Not only a great lunch, but one of our tour guides, Stefan, pulled out a guitar and played us a few songs. He was GOOD! He’s a renaissance man – motorcycle rider and guide, taught math, excellent artist (we’ll post his daily drawings of our route), and a musician.

Fourth day was rainy off and on in the morning, and we rode Aquafredda to Maratea. The highlight of the day was a detour to a walled city high on a bluff and a walk through the little town.

Fifth day was all about getting across the channel to the island of Sicily. Interesting ride in the city (Messina) on the Sicily side. These people are crazy drivers! Arrived at the very nice hotel in Taormina.

Sixth day was another rest day, and Andy and I decided to do the ride around Mt. Etna. Our tour guide, Thomas, joined us for the ride, but the others declined because of the slippery ash that was reportedly covering the roads. The volcano erupted just one week ago, so there’s a lot of black ash all over the island. There was definitely ash on the roads — and in some places it was covering the entire road and about 2 inches deep — but Biker knows his way around a road, so we had zero problema, although we did get pulled over by the carabinieri on a routine stop. Beautiful, fast-paced ride (finally!) on some curvy and quite scenic roads. We even saw some sheep herders and sheep dogs herding sheep across the road in front of us. Unique and fun!

Tonight we are sitting at a cafe in Taormina, having a glass or two of wine and enjoying the people-watching — our favorite European pastime. Pics aren’t working well tonight, so you’ll have to wait for those.

We have three more days of riding, then home.

Ciao!