Day 5: 6/13/24

 Today was a travel day, leaving Taormina and taking a coach to Sicili (pronounced “chickali”),

They separated us from our luggage: a panel van took the bags and we walked through town to a coach rather than a bus. There weren’t enough seats for me to lay down in the back row and fall asleep..

There were probably economic reasons for two vehicles plus it meant that our luggage would arrive before us, This was probably a good thing because we met a group at the airport that had 50 pound bags. VBT suggests traveling light. They apparently did not get the memo.

The ride was about three hours, mostly on high-speed highways an included a break at a service area. A couple of buses arrived at the same time and as you could expect, I could walk right into a men's room but there was a long line for the women's room. A woman employee energetically redirected women in line to the bathroom in the back of the gas station. We were impressed that she was proactive and so energetic. 

When we arrived in Scicli, it was clear why we didn't get a full-size bus (although we really didn't need it). The streets were so narrow that the driver had to stop to squeeze through corners and even had to back up an alley to deliver us to the front of the hotel, Palazzo Favaccio. It is a World Heritage city.

Here's the entrance. No flashing marquis, no drive-up.

Lobby and front desk.

Area outside our room.

Our room. Check out the ceiling.

Our first meeting with a bike and safety review with our tour leaders. Eduardo on the left is the same guide for our 2013 trip to Sicily. Lea is the other guide.

Here's my road bike: Fuji Gran Fondo 1.3. Shimano 105 mechanical. Pretty much the same bike that we have on all our VBT trips. Serviceable.

Here is the view from where we ate lunch. It was not where the guides directed us to look for a lunch spot, but it was fine. We ended up going back to the same restaurant for dinner.

We returned to the hotel for a bike fitting before heading out on our warm-up ride. As usual, we were the last ones out of the parking lot.

The warm-up ride is usually short to make final adjustments on the bike but the VBT guides are always accommodating if we want to do more or fewer miles. We did the route to the turn-around and added an extension to Modica. I didn't take pictures while we were on the bike, but there were landmarks that looked familiar. I looked up my 2013 blog and sure enough, we were on the same road 11 years ago.

Here are the stats for the day: https://www.strava.com/activities/11643721707 

We weren't the last ones to finish, but pretty close. I haven't done many miles early in the season and I am SLOW.

There was a park in front of our hotel and a refreshment stand was doing brisk business. Some of our group were already into their post-ride beers. Here's my lemon granita, basically a slushie. Cool and refreshing but very sweet.