Page 54 - FAST 2024 Calendar Yearbook

Riding Day 10: Agrigento to Catania - 226km / 140 miles
This would be our final riding day which arrived bright and sunny as we left our overnight hotel near the ancient Greek temple ruins of Agrigento, and headed to our tour's final destination, the Grand Hotel Villar Itria in Cantania, where the next day I would catch my flight home to Los Angeles This south of Sicily is more rolling valleys with large farms as we traverse 2-lane roads that snake through the valleys with no vehicle traffic. We arrive into Cantania and our hotel early in the mid-afternoon, and with few hours to spare and decide to ride to the nearby Mount Etna volcano which we missed a few days earlier because of the weather.
We ride our bikes from town to the Mt. Etna National Park area which is like a moon scape of volcanic rock with an asphalt roadway paved over it, having often been destroyed and buried by lava flows, and then paved over again. The still snow capped Etna is the most active volcano in Europe. Fresh green vegetation pops up everywhere, creating a unique landscape.
Normally we could take a cable car or jeep up to the rim of the 3,340m /
10958.ft 2-mile high volcano, but the road is closed and jammed with hundreds of
cars. We later learn back at the hotel the famous Giro d’ Italia was taking place
there, and we are excited to see that some of the major race teams were staying
at our hotel with all their support vehicles and the racing bicycles were being
washed and serviced over by the mechanics in out hotel parking lot. So cool!
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