Scopello-Buseto Palizzolo (44 km)
The pasta pig-out had to end. The first real cycling day of the trip, we travelled about 40 kilometres, through a rolling mountain terrain.
I have posted a photo of a map of the area. I sketched out the rough route of our trip with a green pencil crayon.
The weather was windy and cloudy with some rain showers. We were all thankful it wasn't too hot, as it was a fairly hard day of riding while we got our legs into shape. But the scenery was amazing - shepherds with their flocks, vineyards, olive groves and small villages nestled into the rolling terrain.
On this leg of the trip we also had an amazing encounter with a desert the Sicilians call cannoli.
I did some research with the help of my good friend W. Peida and found out that cannoli are tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling usually containing ricotta cheese (or alternatively, but less traditionally, sweetened Mascarpone) blended with some combination of vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, Marsala wine, rosewater or other flavorings.
Cannoli is the plural of the word "cannolu" in the Sicialian dialect. Cannolu, from Latin, refers to the cane-like look of the cannoli tube.
Some chefs add chocolate chips, which is the way we found them while we rode by a beautiful road-side cafe.
Later I will try to post some photos from this section the trip. The photos were taken by our friends Chris and Sarah, who were using a still camera at that point in the trip. (I was shooting mostly video at that point). It was Chris and Sarah who convinced us to cycle in Sicily, and I am very glad they did.
As a side note, we later had an experience with some Marsala wine and an amazing Marsalan, but I will leave that story to Chris and Sarah.
So after a long day of cycling and canneloni consumption, we stayed at a rather odd place that had been turned into a kind of tourist trap for history buffs. It was a crumbling former family estate type of place with some rooms that had sod roofs. There was a kind of "Fawlty Towers" kind of tone. It was as if they didn't have enough staff. Perhaps because it was still off season (?)
For example, when we arrived in the evening, our bags still weren't there. (The bike tour was arranged so the hotels would transport our baggage). To their credit they sent someone right away to get them...and they were very nice people.
There was a kind of half-assed museum in one of the building with old. A nice enough place, though, with an amazing old fireplace and original wood fired oven, dining room etc. Old family photos on the walls. We dubbed it "The House of Mold".
The food, however, was a real come-down from Chef Tony's place.
At dinner they served this kind of odd plate of meats (which appeared to be deep fried) including a lamb cut with the kidney attached. Not to my taste, and I consider myself pretty adventurous when it comes to what I put in my mouth.
Our room smelled mildewy, and I found a huge centipede type beastie on the wall just as we were going to sleep. Yuck.
I was happy to get on the road toward Nubia and the coast in the fresh Sicilan air the next morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment