Area: Madonie, Sicily
Just the tiniest of introductions to the Madonie mountains in the Sicilian interior - on a blisteringly hot afternoon, our first full day. We'd flown in to Catania the day before and made our way up to the wonderful hilltop town of Gangi. This morning, full of excitement, I did a pre-breakfast run through its maze of streets, down and down until I reached the newer flats and apartments at the bottom of the original medieval settlement. The whole place is barely believable, like a Provencal 'village perche' but far more genuine, less gentrified and less touristy (at least it was in dystopian 2020!). A long climb back up Monte Marone along the 'main road' to the Piazza on top of the hill. After breakfast, we took in the equally beautiful Petralia Soprana before heading up to Piano Battiglia, a high plain of barren limestone and pine forests. We had lunch here at an Alpine-style Refugio, and then I was given just a few minutes to get into the hills (literally). A wide path led to steep slopes of rough limestone and views over the barren highest hills of the Madonie - reminiscent of the Cretan White Mountains I enjoyed so much last year, albeit less extensive and a little less wild. I'd love to have done a longer outing up Pizzo Carbonara but it would have been entirely unacceptable.
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