Stefan Bressel is a convinced part-time Sicilian. The artist discovered the island for himself years ago because of the way of life, the light - and the great racing bike routes. Since then, the 45-year-old has been nesting there for weeks at a time. He has developed a solid allergy to posh Tuscany, the Italy of longing for many Germans. His loud lament in the Siena area is unforgettable: "I can't stand all this terracotta... no more!" And that's what he gets for it now: we met in Sicily to inspect "his" mountains. No neat rows of cypress trees anywhere. And terracotta bowls can only be found on the sun terraces of the hotels in Cefalù.
If you were to ask a northern Italian about life in Sicily, the answer would probably be: "Down there? That's Africa!" In fact, Sicily's capital Palermo is much closer to Tunis than to Turin: 300 kilometres as the crow flies to one city and 900 kilometres to the other. The island is separated from Africa by the Mediterranean, and from northern Italy by a long history. Sicily, the football at the tip of Italy's boot, has been kicked in the direction they liked by many occupiers. The Greeks left behind temples, the Arabs refined the agriculture; Normans, Hohenstaufen and Romans bequeathed architecture, culture and their genes to the island. Sicily has only been fully Italian since 1860 - at least on paper.
The entire travel report is available as a PDF and these routes can be downloaded below as GPS data:
- TOUR 1:Warm up
114 kilometres, 1,750 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of ten per cent
- TOUR 2: Short speciality
46 kilometres, 900 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of seven per cent
- TOUR 3: Into the heart of the Madonie
120 kilometres, 2,100 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of eight per cent
- TOUR 4: Around Mount Etna
122 kilometres, 2,500 metres in altitude, maximum gradient of ten percent The highlight of a trip to Sicily
GPS DATA: TOUR offers the tour data for free download. You can download the tracks in GPX format directly onto a GPS device or view them on your computer in Google Earth or Google Maps.
