Routes tried by our own mechanics, in the right order, with a map to download.
Half a day on the Maddalena peninsula, between low cliffs and coves. This is the ride we suggest to anyone who picks up a scooter in the morning and still has no idea where to go. You leave Ortigia, follow the Porto Grande and within twenty minutes you are inside the Plemmirio Marine Protected Area, established in 2005 on the Maddalena peninsula: low cliffs,…
From Ortigia to Calabernardo by way of Fontane Bianche and Avola. A day at the sea without deciding in advance where to stop. You head south and find, one after another, four different beaches: the very white sand of Fontane Bianche, the equipped lidos of Marina di Avola, the mouth of the Asinaro and the long beach at Calabernardo, which ends on the rocks. F…
The reserve, the coves and the tonnara village in one day. The most popular day out, and the one that needs the most planning: the Vendicari nature reserve is a protected strip of coast between Noto Marina and Marzamemi, with five different entrances on the SP19 Noto-Pachino road. You pick which one to use according to what you want to see — Calamosche for t…
Portopalo, Capo Passero and the island where two seas meet. Portopalo di Capo Passero is the southernmost town in Italy — further south than Tunis. You go to say you have been, and you stay for the Isola delle Correnti, the strip of land where the Ionian meets the Mediterranean and the sea, literally, comes in from two sides. It is a long day: take the car,…
The Cassibile canyon, the descent and the fresh water. A canyon three hundred metres deep cut by the river Cassibile, with freshwater pools on the floor. The road takes you to the viewpoint; the rest is on foot, and the way down is as steep as the way back up. The main path, the Scala Cruci, reopened in August 2024 after years closed because of a fire, and y…
Five thousand tombs cut into the rock, a UNESCO site. You leave the sea behind and climb inland, into the Iblei. Pantalica is a necropolis of more than five thousand tombs cut into the rock face between the 13th and the 8th century BC, a UNESCO site, hanging above the Anapo valley. There is no ticket and there is almost nobody: only the road climbing, the ca…
Noto, Modica, Ragusa Ibla and Scicli — with the Montalbano locations. Four towns rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake and now a UNESCO site, all within sixty kilometres of each other. This is the drive you do by car, and it is worth a full day if you accept seeing the towns on foot instead of photographing them from the window. For anyone who has watched the se…
Four different kinds of sea within half an hour of Ortigia. This is not a sightseeing tour: it is the list of where people go swimming when they live here. Along twenty kilometres of coast there are four different seas — the pale sand and flat bottom of Fontane Bianche, the golden sand and beach clubs of Arenella, the flat rocks of Ognina where you get in st…
Four sandy beaches along the coast of the Val di Noto. This is the coast where the sand never ends: from Lido di Noto down to Marzamemi it runs almost unbroken for tens of kilometres, with a bottom that shelves gently and no rocks at the shoreline. What changes is how equipped it is: from the beach clubs with a tennis court at Lido di Noto to the beach at El…
From Marina di Modica to Marina di Ragusa, four seaside villages. The Ragusa coast is the other face of the Sicilian sea: no narrow coves between rocks, but long wide beaches, low seafronts and fishing villages one after another. In 2026 five towns along this stretch hold the Blue Flag — Ragusa, Scicli, Modica, Pozzallo and Ispica — and it shows. It is a lon…