Retreat to Catania

I'm leaving Noto very early so I have lots of time to get to Catania which is 6 and 1/2 hour ride. I managed to ride into Brucoli again and enjoy the marina for a little bit. This town has a close knit social life the locals are really tight. This Little Town is about 40 km from The Etna volcano but the wind must have caught it just right and blew ash all the way to here and today they have been cleaning boats.

It's my last day on this bike as I am returning it to Decathlon tonight. I'm thinking that I'm going to miss my steed, as I am unscrewing all the items I had attached to it. The return was a little tricky, they offered just 185 euros. This was a great way to have a bike and not need to ship, but I am running out of things to buy at Decathlon for the store credit, might be the last time to do it this way, very handy though.

The bike math still works out okay. Cost 569 minus 185 buy back comes out to just under 15 euros per day and 21 cents per kilometer of riding. For not having to deal with storing a bike bag at an airport, being able to do point to point and not having to deal with sourcing a cardboard box to return and taking apart the bike so it fits in the box, this is a very acceptable cost. My overall cost of this trip was $2,650 of which a substantial portion is food which I would have had to eat anyway. My average overnight cost is under 30 euros. My airfare was on miles.

I used no trains and only a taxi during the mishap in Napoli and taxis in Catania wants to bike was gone. Another thing about traveling by bike is that never have a parking problem everything is just so freeing and simple.

I did include a few parting shots of what Sicily presents to the traveler when they get outside of the touristy areas. If you thought Mexico had a trash problem you haven't seen Sicily yet.Read more