The RTS1402 is over

We would like to thank all tourmembers for a wonderful time together and we wish everybody a safe trip back home. Ride safe and keep in touch! Ciao!!!

Your Tour Guides

Alan

Domenico

Marko

Riding day 9, Pompeii - Rome

Last riding day of the tour! Today we left Pompeii and rode northward direction Rome. Taking advantage of a Neapolitan Tour Guide, a group enjoyed the first photo stop (and of course a coffee!) in Naples before going to Sperlonga, a little nice town on the coast, where we had lunch. After that, and unexpected for all tourmembers, wonderful backroads took us very close to Rome where we finally had to "survive" to some heavy traffic to reach our hotel.

Photo Stop in Naples

Neapolitain coastline with the island of Capri in the background

The coast near Sperlonga

Carpineto Romano, what a wonderful road to reach this town!

The view from Rocca Massima

Riding day 8, Maratea - Pompeii

After leaving Maratea, we entered Campania and rode in the Cilento area until we reached Paestum, a Graeco-Roman city famous for its very well preserved temples in doric style (just like the ones we already saw in Agrigento), where we had a break. Then we continued our trip on the beautiful coast road of the "Costiera Amalfitana", a perfect spot for lunch and strolling around. Stretching for 50 km (30 miles) along a promontory from Sorrento to Salerno, it is one of Europe's most beautiful coastlines and it is protected by Unesco as World Heritage site. Unfortunately, being such a famous site means that there was also some traffic! After that, we finally reached Pompeii where, before dinner, we took a guided tour of the famous ruins of the old Roman town that was completely buried by Mount Vesuvius in the year 79AD. Impressive and very interesting!

Ozeas in Paestum

Riding on the Amalfi Coast

The famous Amalfi Coast Lemons

Lunch

The amazing Cathedral of Amalfi

Amalfi

Carlos and the view over Positano

Guided visit of the archeological area of Pompeii

The shade of Mount Vesuvius, the guy who caused all this!

Day 7, rest day in Maratea

Rest day, but not for all! Some brave riders chose to go for a ride in the Basilicata region and, when they came back, a delicious picnic was waiting for them!

Riding day 6, Tropea -Maratea

Today we went across all Calabria before finally reaching Maratea, in the Basilicata region, and the group was again split into two. Some riders (the ones who wanted to enjoy more curves!) went in the inland and the others rode along the coast. We left Tropea in a beautiful sunny morning and, after a delicious break in Pizzo Calabro, a town famous for the best ice cream in Italy, we continued riding northward. One group had lunch in Altomonte, in the Pollino mountains, and the other in Diamante on the coast. This town is famous for its murales, and it was really nice walking through the city centre! Both rides were really great today!

Morning briefing by the swimming pool

Tropea in the morning

Pizzo Calabro

The famous "Tartufo" ice cream of Pizzo Calabro

Ducatisti!!!

Fuscaldo

Our bikes attracted many children after the sunday mass

Crystal clear water in Diamante

Murales in Diamante

The coast of Calabria before reaching Maratea

The big statue of the Christ of Maratea, on a 2000 feet cleef overlooking the sea!

Riding day 5, Taormina - Tropea

Today we finally left Sicily after four wonderful days, but first we visited the town of Forza d'Agrò, very close to Taormina and famous to be the place where many scenes of the movie "The Godfather" were filmed... while another group chose to do a longer route crossing the Peloritani mountain range. We reached the eastern tip of Sicily and crossed the strait of Messina, the narrow passage between the island and Calabria. The ferry took just 30 minutes to cross the strait and we reached the mainland where we had lunch in Scilla, a beautiful little town on the coast before finally reaching Tropea, the most famous touristic destination of this region, a town situated on a reef overlooking the beautiful sea of Calabria!

The view from Forza d'Agrò

The church where the wedding of "The Godfather" was filmed

Mount Etna from Forza d'Agrò

Mary and Joseph on the ferry to Calabria

Brett, Ed and Eric

Scilla

Lunch time!

Photo stop on the coast of Calabria

Riding day 4, Mount Etna!

We are in Taormina and Mount Etna, the biggest volcano in Europe, is just a few miles away... can't miss it!!!

Lula, Cybele, Ozeas, Bartholomeu, TG Alan, Kleber and Clouis

Riding day 3, Cefalù - Taormina

From Cefalù we went to the inland and started exploring the Madonie mountains, it was really amazing! Then, we rode towards east through beatiful curvy roads and surrounded by wonderful landscapes. The smoking giant mt. Etna started to become always closer, before we passed it on our right side and then finally reached the coast near Taormina! Great riding!

Mount Etna from the distance

Riding day 2, Agrigento - Cefalù

Leaving Agrigento, today we crossed the island again from South to North, direction Cefalù, a very pretty town on the coast that is also one of the main tourist attractions of the region. We said goodbye to the valley of the Temples passing very close to them again and then we left the town and we started riding through green valleys, twisty roads with almost no traffic and wildflowers growing everywhere... what a beautiful place! After a nice picture stop we had a coffee in Prizzi, a typical sicilian medieval town located on the top of a hill. We also passed close to the town of Corleone, famous to be the birthplace of many mafia bosses and as well because it is the birthplace of several fictional characters in The Godfather (most notably Vito Corleone). After this beautiful ride what could be better than a delicious picnic prepared by Marko, before finally heading to Cefalù?

First photo stop

Silvio Luis

wonderful fields!

Clouis and his RT

Prizzi

Picture stop in Corleone

our bikes parked for the picnic

Congratulations Marko, what a nice picnic!

Welcome to Catania!

Sicily, the biggest island of the Mediterranean, is the starting point of this wonderful tour that in ten days will take us up to Rome and pass through some of the most beautiful and celebrated spots of Southern Italy, places where Zeus, Athena and Eros are recalled to join Past and Present. The Greek mythological figures are not chosen by accident because this region was first colonized by the Greeks and almost all the most important cities have a greek origin! The history of the south of Italy is very different from the one of the rest of the country, being at the centre of the Mediterranean sea meant to be the "crossroad" of many cultures and... well, we can't wait to discover more!

Riding day 1, Catania - Agrigento

Spring is probably the best season to visit Sicily and the morning view from our hotel just confirms this idea! Goethe, the famous German writer, said that "To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything." Today we rode from Catania to Agrigento, on the southern coast of the island. On the way we stopped at the Roman Villa del Casale, built in the first quarter of the 4th century and containing the richest, largest and most complex collection of Roman mosaics in the world. After that we continued our journey to Agrigento riding on very nice and twisty roads and, before reaching the hotel, we could visit the famous "valley of the Temples", containing some of the largest and best-preserved ancient Greek buildings. It was definitely a day dedicated to archeology!

Mount Etna from our hotel

Our group ready to go!

Alan and Marko

Jodie and Jason

Picture stop in Piazza Armerina, Cybele e Lula

Villa Romana del Casale

wonderful mosaics!!!

Last break in Sommatino

Greek temples in Agrigento, this one is more than 2400 years old!

The guided visit of the temples

The Concordia temple, one of the best preserved in the world