Wobbling Winos: Day 7. San Leone to Gela.

SYDay 7. San Leone to Gela. 88km.

After a delicious breakfast provided by our hosts at Le Nottii Di Morfia, we set off through the hills to Palma di Montchiaro. A few km on our way we met up with Patrizia (the lady from Milan) who was cycling solo around Sicily. We had actually passed her en route from Trapani. She was on her way to Licata from were she was going to take a train to Seracusa. She said that she found the roads in Sicily very busy and that the cycling in Sardinia was much better, that was why she was taking a train as the route it is not very pretty to Saracusa.

We cycled on and turned onto the SS115, about 5 km along, we got to a tunnel, Patrizia said that she was turning around to take another route as she did not want to go through the tunnel. We should have turned then, as the road turned out to be very busy. We tried to turn off it further along, on a dirt track, but that took us up a very steep road to a smaller road that linked up with the busy road 5 km further on. We had no other alternative but to continue until 15 km out of Palma di Montchiaro where we turned off onto the S48. What a relief !! We stayed on this route all the way to Licata. This was a beautiful route through wheat lands. Much of the wheat for Italy is grown in Sicily, beautiful Durrum wheat, which is used to make pasta. One of the reasons why the various empires wanted to control Sicily was because it is was the biggest producer of fruit and vegetables in Europe. Unfortunately a lot of the farming area is covered in plastic tunnels now, for vegetable growing.

There were some steep hills coming into Licata, as we approached it from the west, then a steep downhill to the coast were we stopped to have a ham roll and a coffee. The day had steadily heated up which made climbing the hills slow.

At one point while cycling along the coast we spotted quite a few birds we recognized, European Bee - eaters, Eurasian Hoopoe, Little Kestrel, Eurasian Marsh Harrier, European Honey- buzzard, Crested Lark, Barn Swallow,

All along the road there were bushes of Caperis Spinosa, fennel, sea holly, scabiosa, large blue thistles and Queen Anne's lace in bloom. The buds of the Caperis Spinosa is picked and put in salt water to preserve them to be sold as capers. The seeds, caper berries, are also picked and preserved.

We arrived at our B&B Santiago in Gela, in time to have a ice cold beer before meeting our host.

Dinner was a delicious spread of antipasti at Tratteria San Giovanni, which included small meatballs, delicious pancetta, ham, cheese, caponata, salads, potato cakes, frittata, stuffed mushrooms, this was followed by half portion of Spaghetti with a Trapanese sauce. All absolutely delicious. We had a delicious bottle of 2014 BDP Nero Di Avola. (WW 7).

Gela is a large city, people had advised us not to spend time there, but we found it vibrant and although it was a bit down at heel, it had a certain charm about it.There are still bakeries that sell speciality biscuits and cakes from the region, the butchers who sell special cuts of meat and the Fruiterers who sell fresh fruit and vegetables from the surrounding area. The supermarkets are not very visible and the Main Rd is not filled with designer shops as is so often the case in other European cities. All the men in town gather around the various Piazzas and bars in the Main Rd to chat, networking at it's best.

Notable sights are The Castelluccio, small castle, Torre Di Manfria situated on a typical sand dune beach and The Cathedral dedicated to The Holy Virgin Assunt.