1500Km,Fiat 500, Sicily, and the old Targa Florio
Discussion
Not sure where this fits, but general should cover it
Its an interesting place, Sicily and it was my first visit. I had read all sorts of grim warnings, impossible traffic,ripoffs everywhere,lots of crime. It may well be true, but I saw none of it. I had come to do some driving and especially to retrace the short (74KM) Targa Florio route. The Targa always ran on public roads from 1906 to 1973, interrupted only by wars, and some of the greatest cars and drivers ran here. Since the rental agency was all out of Ferrari P3s, I settled for a Fiat 500 5 speed. The traffic is fairly interesting and easier than driving in (say) India, but people do interesting things such as add an extra lane or two on the road,merge at extreme angles, and fill every available space. Considering that most cars are manual, every second driver seems to drive with one arm hanging vertically out of the driver's side -maybe they steer with their knees. Despite them many warnings about electronic speed controls it appears as if speed limits are advisory - I frequently found myself in very high speed lines of traffic. I never got flashed, but maybe I will get some post-holiday surprises in the mail.
The Fiat is a fairly civilized little car, not at all quick but quite happy to run along at autostrada speeds, and notable quiet. I found the gearchange very vague and the stop-go engine a bit irritating, but overall it's better than a lot of stuff I have driven. The seats are fine for shorter runs but I found them fatiguing after a couple of hours' drive.
The day after I arrived I headed out for the Piccolo Madonie (final version) circuit of the Targa Florio.
It has an amazing history...in 1919 a young guy called Enzo Ferrari had his first race here, and five years later Mercedes would enter a team of 3 cars. The team in car three consisted of the car's designer,Ferdinand Porsche, and co-driver Alfred Neubahr. In 1955, Mercedes had the best and worst of times - Moss won the Mille MIglia, and the Le Mans disastrous crash occured, Mercedes announced their withdrawal from racing. However, there was one more race with the sports car championship in the balance.- the Targa Florio. Mercedes threw everything at it, entering five of the gorgeous 300SLRs.. drivers included Moss,Collins,Hawthorne, Fangio and Kling. Moss won the the race. It was the final campaign of the 300SLR and Mercedes was gone for many years. Later it saw the dominance of Ferrari broken by Porsche. However, road racing was coming to an end. The Mille Miglia was gone by 1957,but the Targa was a major race till 1973.
Today, The starting box at Cerda is utterly peaceful, a car passing every ten minutes. Behind chain link fencing sits a lonely bust of Vincenzo Florio, the founder of the race. The pits are locked up. A large illustration of a Ferrari P3 marks the start of the course. There are 559 turns on the course which starts off smoothly enough. It passes through several towns which have narrow streets with buildings set back only by narrow footpaths. Passing through Cerda it is hard to imagine full race cars coming through a two-car width street, flat out, with no armco or protection. The circuit has innumerable hairpins ,speed rises and drops as it meanders through the mountains. There are some areas where you can easily how it could be run very quickly, others that seem impossible. (This is all fairly theoretical in a Fiat 500). 700,000 Sicilians
would come out to line the circuit, sitting right on the edge of the track, legs hanging over the walls, feet from the drivers.
Today, the road surface in the alpine section is treacherous , with areas of road surface washed out or subsided. They are mainly marked and need to be negotiated very carefully. I went through some which were marked by 10km/h warnings. They all need to be taken seriously..driving at normal posted speeds would wreck the car. The old town of Colisano and Campofelice are often seen in period photos of the races, and today, Colisano has a series of mosaics depicting greats moments of the Targa. There are several museums, the best of which is in Colisano.
The twists and turns mean constant gearchanges. Many turns are blind, the road is two-way, and there are steep inclines and declines, so any temptation to try to create a racing line would be foolhardy to say the least.
Towards the end of the course there is a 6km straight which would have been taken flat out. This made for some interesting gear ratios decisions...short lower gears with a big gap to top.
Sicily has an amazing history with just about every occupier and ethnicity Greeks, Arabs,Romans,Normans,French and Italians, so its original language was derived from multiple sources. Today, you can see abndant evidence of many of them. The 12th century cathedral at Monreale in Palermo is superb, the floors showing the Moorish influence in contrast to the Christian murals.
Original Fiat 500s are very common still........
Saw a number of these quite neat little Ligiers...spiritual successor to the Mini Moke??...
More to come.
Checked into the Hilton in Giardini Naxos and got an upgrade to a suite, which resembled the teenage dream of a young Hugh Hefner in 1950. However, the views were sensational...the water from one window, and the smoking Mount Etna from the other. The nearby town of Taormina is very touristy as it has been a holiday town forever, but ate in a great restaurant called Maffei's, which was inexpensive with wonderful seafood and atmosphere.
Mount Etna itself is a fair drive and the vegetation changes from lush to sparse and finally to the blackness of lava as you ascend. The sunlight disappears too as you reach the cloud layer.For the adventurous-minded there is a guided tour to the top, though I did not do it. I came across an unexpected sight at the rim. A group of French Porsche enthusiasts had arrived. a GT3 RS was about the last thing I expect to see on a volcano. I was impressed that the RS still had its front splitter.
The next hotel was outside the town of Siracusa and was very difficult to find, down 3km of fairly rough road surface, but it had a fantastical quality and was almost spa- like in its calmness. It also served excellent food and was fairly inexpensive.
Its an interesting place, Sicily and it was my first visit. I had read all sorts of grim warnings, impossible traffic,ripoffs everywhere,lots of crime. It may well be true, but I saw none of it. I had come to do some driving and especially to retrace the short (74KM) Targa Florio route. The Targa always ran on public roads from 1906 to 1973, interrupted only by wars, and some of the greatest cars and drivers ran here. Since the rental agency was all out of Ferrari P3s, I settled for a Fiat 500 5 speed. The traffic is fairly interesting and easier than driving in (say) India, but people do interesting things such as add an extra lane or two on the road,merge at extreme angles, and fill every available space. Considering that most cars are manual, every second driver seems to drive with one arm hanging vertically out of the driver's side -maybe they steer with their knees. Despite them many warnings about electronic speed controls it appears as if speed limits are advisory - I frequently found myself in very high speed lines of traffic. I never got flashed, but maybe I will get some post-holiday surprises in the mail.
The Fiat is a fairly civilized little car, not at all quick but quite happy to run along at autostrada speeds, and notable quiet. I found the gearchange very vague and the stop-go engine a bit irritating, but overall it's better than a lot of stuff I have driven. The seats are fine for shorter runs but I found them fatiguing after a couple of hours' drive.
The day after I arrived I headed out for the Piccolo Madonie (final version) circuit of the Targa Florio.
It has an amazing history...in 1919 a young guy called Enzo Ferrari had his first race here, and five years later Mercedes would enter a team of 3 cars. The team in car three consisted of the car's designer,Ferdinand Porsche, and co-driver Alfred Neubahr. In 1955, Mercedes had the best and worst of times - Moss won the Mille MIglia, and the Le Mans disastrous crash occured, Mercedes announced their withdrawal from racing. However, there was one more race with the sports car championship in the balance.- the Targa Florio. Mercedes threw everything at it, entering five of the gorgeous 300SLRs.. drivers included Moss,Collins,Hawthorne, Fangio and Kling. Moss won the the race. It was the final campaign of the 300SLR and Mercedes was gone for many years. Later it saw the dominance of Ferrari broken by Porsche. However, road racing was coming to an end. The Mille Miglia was gone by 1957,but the Targa was a major race till 1973.
Today, The starting box at Cerda is utterly peaceful, a car passing every ten minutes. Behind chain link fencing sits a lonely bust of Vincenzo Florio, the founder of the race. The pits are locked up. A large illustration of a Ferrari P3 marks the start of the course. There are 559 turns on the course which starts off smoothly enough. It passes through several towns which have narrow streets with buildings set back only by narrow footpaths. Passing through Cerda it is hard to imagine full race cars coming through a two-car width street, flat out, with no armco or protection. The circuit has innumerable hairpins ,speed rises and drops as it meanders through the mountains. There are some areas where you can easily how it could be run very quickly, others that seem impossible. (This is all fairly theoretical in a Fiat 500
). 700,000 Sicilianswould come out to line the circuit, sitting right on the edge of the track, legs hanging over the walls, feet from the drivers.
Today, the road surface in the alpine section is treacherous , with areas of road surface washed out or subsided. They are mainly marked and need to be negotiated very carefully. I went through some which were marked by 10km/h warnings. They all need to be taken seriously..driving at normal posted speeds would wreck the car. The old town of Colisano and Campofelice are often seen in period photos of the races, and today, Colisano has a series of mosaics depicting greats moments of the Targa. There are several museums, the best of which is in Colisano.
The twists and turns mean constant gearchanges. Many turns are blind, the road is two-way, and there are steep inclines and declines, so any temptation to try to create a racing line would be foolhardy to say the least.
Towards the end of the course there is a 6km straight which would have been taken flat out. This made for some interesting gear ratios decisions...short lower gears with a big gap to top.
Sicily has an amazing history with just about every occupier and ethnicity Greeks, Arabs,Romans,Normans,French and Italians, so its original language was derived from multiple sources. Today, you can see abndant evidence of many of them. The 12th century cathedral at Monreale in Palermo is superb, the floors showing the Moorish influence in contrast to the Christian murals.
Original Fiat 500s are very common still........
Saw a number of these quite neat little Ligiers...spiritual successor to the Mini Moke??...
More to come.
Checked into the Hilton in Giardini Naxos and got an upgrade to a suite, which resembled the teenage dream of a young Hugh Hefner in 1950. However, the views were sensational...the water from one window, and the smoking Mount Etna from the other. The nearby town of Taormina is very touristy as it has been a holiday town forever, but ate in a great restaurant called Maffei's, which was inexpensive with wonderful seafood and atmosphere.
Mount Etna itself is a fair drive and the vegetation changes from lush to sparse and finally to the blackness of lava as you ascend. The sunlight disappears too as you reach the cloud layer.For the adventurous-minded there is a guided tour to the top, though I did not do it. I came across an unexpected sight at the rim. A group of French Porsche enthusiasts had arrived. a GT3 RS was about the last thing I expect to see on a volcano. I was impressed that the RS still had its front splitter
.The next hotel was outside the town of Siracusa and was very difficult to find, down 3km of fairly rough road surface, but it had a fantastical quality and was almost spa- like in its calmness. It also served excellent food and was fairly inexpensive.
Edited by RDMcG on Tuesday 5th June 15:55
Edited by RDMcG on Tuesday 5th June 16:39
Hilton Giardini Naxos...aargh..the wallpaper
But a superb view
pulled into Hotel Borga Pantano to find many 500s
Its a great place to stay and inexpensive
Fun to see the variety of people here and endless feral dogs :
Drove up Mt Etna..still active:
But a superb view
pulled into Hotel Borga Pantano to find many 500s
Its a great place to stay and inexpensive
Fun to see the variety of people here and endless feral dogs :
Drove up Mt Etna..still active:
Edited by RDMcG on Tuesday 5th June 15:56
Edited by RDMcG on Tuesday 5th June 16:00
Great trip report as usual Ronin!
Background on Targa Florio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targa_Florio
PS: I sent you a PM on M5board - would appreciate a response if you have a chance.
Background on Targa Florio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targa_Florio
PS: I sent you a PM on M5board - would appreciate a response if you have a chance.
There is an astounding 60,000sq ft Roman Villa called Villa Romana de la Casale which has the best preserved mosaics in the world...buried in a landslide and left untouched...Here is a shot of the complete Circus Maximus. Its a spectacular place
Edited by RDMcG on Tuesday 5th June 15:57
Edited by RDMcG on Tuesday 5th June 16:02
Food:
Maffeis in Taormina is great and inexpensive:
La Madia near Catania is regarded as rthe best restaurant in Sicily..friendly , expensive, and to my mind one of it is too too challenging....
THis is not an egg..its made of squid
WHite raw anchovies with seawater and fish liver
Best granita: Cafe Sicialano in Taormina
Maffeis in Taormina is great and inexpensive:
La Madia near Catania is regarded as rthe best restaurant in Sicily..friendly , expensive, and to my mind one of it is too too challenging....
THis is not an egg..its made of squid
WHite raw anchovies with seawater and fish liver
Best granita: Cafe Sicialano in Taormina
Edited by RDMcG on Tuesday 5th June 15:57
Seek said:
Great trip report as usual Ronin!
Background on Targa Florio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targa_Florio
PS: I sent you a PM on M5board - would appreciate a response if you have a chance.
Been a while since I visited it..will checkBackground on Targa Florio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Targa_Florio
PS: I sent you a PM on M5board - would appreciate a response if you have a chance.
Contigo said:
Wrong on the Granita. Try the Bar Vitelli in Savoca. Amazing, so much so that Scorsese wanted to buy the Granita machine and the owner would not sell it to him!!
As far as I can tell, its like Texas BBQ sauce...every place has the best recipe. Actually it has really good in many places....RDMcG said:
As far as I can tell, its like Texas BBQ sauce...every place has the best recipe. Actually it has really good in many places....
Indeed, you have to go to Savoca though. Out of all the places we went which included most of the ones you went to, Noto, Siracusa, Taormina, Palermo etc we found Savoca the most enchanting. . Actually it has really good in many places....Great write up - thanks for posting. It brought a few memories back as we drove there in 2010 in two Lotus Elises - a fantastic three week adventure, via France and Switzerland, the Alps, Lake Como, Tuscany, over the mountains to Pescara, back to Pompeii and Naples, the ferry to Sicily and back via Genoa and the French Alps. The road surfaces in Sicily and the Targa route were a real downer for us though - we were hoping for more Alps/Dolomites like travelling 
We drove both the short and long routes.
Two green with yellow striped Lotuses stopped a lot of traffic along the way, which was a huge benefit in rush hour Palermo otherwise we might still be there
We drove both the short and long routes.Two green with yellow striped Lotuses stopped a lot of traffic along the way, which was a huge benefit in rush hour Palermo otherwise we might still be there
Stephanie Plum said:
The road surfaces in Sicily and the Targa route were a real downer for us though - we were hoping for more Alps/Dolomites like travelling We drove both the short and long routes.
The roads can be horrendous-its a bit of a barrier to a good historic Targa revival..... We drove both the short and long routes.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff