We were lucky enough to enjoy a walking tour in the Madonie region of Sicily. This is a National Park just south of Cefalu. The walk included parts of the Via dei Frati (Way of the Brothers). It was organised by Inntravel who booked our accommodation, made arrangements for luggage transportation and provided excellent walk notes.
We decided to travel by train and ferry. We took an overnight stop in Chambery in both directions and an overnight ferry from Naples to Palermo. Apart from rather tight connections at Milan this looked reasonable. Starting from Sheffield, the break at Chambery meant we were there in time to get an evening meal. The tight connection at Milan on our return did mean a run (with luggage) from Platform 17 to Platform 4!
On arrival in Palermo we needed to find the bus station. As we had plenty of time we decided to walk. Buses leave from stops on each side of the railway station. Unfortunately we headed for the wrong side where there was a dearth of information. Fortunately a local bus driver put us right. The last part of the journey was a bus winding up through the mountains to the amazing hill top town of Gangi, our first glimpse of which is shown below.
Our hotel was a bit outside the town. It was very welcoming. After settling in we sat on the terrace to have a spritz. We were under cover but this proved inadequate when the thunder started and the heavens opened. We were ushered inside under an umbrella!
Through Gangi
For our first walk we were dropped by a taxi on the other side of Gangi from our hotel. We then walked to the hotel passing through Gangi on our way. We departed from the walk notes going through Gangi and just explored this amazing little town. There was heavy cloud to begin with but this soon cleared. We found we were old enough to get free entry to the little museum so we spent some time there as well as meandering along the narrow cobbled streets up to the top of the town and looking in some of the many churches. We do not advise driving in these streets though the locals seem to cope well. Small fiats or scooters are best.
The route from the town to hotel is mainly memorable for the mud which clung and built up on our boots requiring several stops to try and remove this heavy extra burden!
Gangi to Geraci Siculo
The next day’s walk started with a steady but not steep uphill walk across farmland to a country road. We enjoyed the views of the hills as we climbed. We even were able to see Etna, with a cloudy top. [We had not managed this the day before because of the clouds.]
The road walking was enlivened, not only by views, but by the goats. We then crossed a wooded valley with an ancient bridge at the bottom ascending the other side to the hill top village of Geraci Siculo. We explored the ruined castle at the top and then descended down the the steep and now wet cobbled main street into the village. We first visited the glass balcony at Salto dei Ventimiglia where in 1337 the Count of Geraci threw himself over the cliff to evade capture. It was raining by now. David braved the glass first and then Camilla stepped on it briefly to take a look. We then went into a coffee bar as we knew our accommodation would not open until 16:30. Others came in and we heard the proprierter telling them, in French, about the glass balcony. David went to sleep! A little while later a woman came in and said “Mr Jordan, your accommodation is open now’. How did they know who we were?
That night we had a lovely meal in the Yerax restaurant nearby.
Geraci Siculo to Petralia Sottana
We started this walk by filling our water containers from the fountain below the castle. The villagers are very proud of their water and queue at the fountain to fill up. We had been served it in the restaurant the evening before. The walk was in three parts. In the first part we took a track contouring round the hills with views back to the village and across to where we had glimpses of sea. The second part was a delightful route through the mountains and the third part was a descent to a roman bridge and then ascent to the village which, like many others in the area, is perched on the side of a hill. We had several sightings of fallow deer when crossing the mountains. The autumnal trees were stunning in the sunshine.
Petralia Sottana
Our walk around Petralia Sottana took us back down to the Roman bridge and then up to a balcony walk starting under the Pizzo di Sant’ Otieri, an amazing rock outcrop. We then passed under Monte San Salvatore and finally dropped back to the village. This was enjoyable both for the views and the autumnal colours. We got back to the village at about 3pm and went looking for a beer. All was closed. Due to our different experiance in Geraci we hadn’t realised that everything closes between 2pm and 4.30pm.! Even places that Google maps declared open were shut. Once 4pm came to pass we found our beer and had a pleasant evening with a couple who were a day behind us on the walks.
Petralia Sottana to Castelbuono
For this walk we were dropped by taxi at a point where we could pick up the Via dei Frati. The first part took us through the mountains where we encountered both fallow deer and wild boar. The views were again spectacular. The second part was a steady downhill mostly through woods to the town of Castelbuono. We didn’t do the extra part to the top of Cozzo Luminario as the weather looked doubtful at that point. In fact we stayed dry all day. After finding an open bar for a coffee in Castelbuono we walked to our agriturismo accommodation some 3km from the town.
Castelbuono
We first toured the farm where we were staying. The many olive trees were well laden with fruit. We wondered how many person days they took to harvest! There were also citrus and pomegranite trees. We then walked to Castelbuono and spent the rest of the day exploring the town. This was much busier than anywhere else we had been but featured the same narrow cobbled streets.
Cefalu
We had decided to spend two extra days in Cefalu so as to be beside the sea. The taxi dropped us near our accommodation explaining that it couldn’t get to it. After a little struggle with google maps we found it on a steepish narrow cobbled street. There was no one there so after a minute or two wondering what to do – at this point we were just hoping to drop our luggage as we knew we were much too early for checking in – we rang the telephone number we had. The owner answered but didn’t speak English. He kept saying Whatsapp so we realised he wanted to contact us via this. We did so and due to the translation facilities this gives were able to sort everything out. In fact we had access to our room as soon as the owner came to meet us. Interestingly the arrangement for breakfast was vouchers for the cafe by the cathedral. Breakfast options included a very refreshing lemon granita.
We spent the rest of our day exploring the cathedral and the town. We left the ‘rock’ for the next day so as to climb it when it was cooler. We were finding it significantly warmer than in the mountains. The climb up the rock was rewarding despite the number of other people doing it. We got to the top and explored the various ruins. In the afternoon we walked near the sea and watched the rather spectacular waves coming in. In view of our ferry trip the next day we visited a pharmacy for some ‘Mal de Viaggio’ pills – fortunately not needed.
Palermo and home
We left Cefalu fairly early so as to have some time in Palermo before catching our ferry. We decided to do a hop-on-hop-off open top bus tour. This was not as satisfactory as we hoped. The commentary was not good and poorly aligned to where we were. In addition a stop where we intended to hop off was not working due to a road closure and this was not explained. We had quite a walk round finding our way back to the bus route!
We ended with a meal near the ferry port before boarding for the start of the journey home.