Introduction:

International Bicycle Tours (IBT) in Connecticut is the company that organizes bicycle trips for Elderhostel. I have previously gone to France, Denmark, the Danube and Kiawah Island with IBT. In addition to Elderhostel trips, IBT organizes its own trips, I had joined one to Kiawah Island in South Carolina. Frank Behrendt, IBT’s owner also has his own specials. Such trips are not the ordinary established tours, but are usually first time adventures. It is my understanding that he does not allow just anyone to participate as unexpected hurdles are often encountered.

I learned about the Sicily trip in a letter from Frank. The possibility of adventure appealed to me. I thought that Sicily would be similar to Cyprus where I frequently visit my brother in the summers. Besides, Sicily was one of the countries that the Arabs once occupied among other civilizations and I wanted to see what Arab influence exists there today.

I flew through Cincinnati to Rome to Catania in Sicily. Frank and his long time friend and assistant, Wil, were at the airport to receive us. We were driven by a van northward for an hour to a hotel in Giardini Naxos. This was the starting point of the bicycle tour. We met other participants who had arrived a few days earlier.

While flying to Catania, I noticed that Sicily is a very hilly land, green and fertile along the shore lines and desert in the middle, much like the desert in Jordan. The desert is also hilly and desolate, void of any green life. The volcano on Mount Etna was visible, as we got closer to Catania. The high mountain was smoking not only at the top but also from its sides. I was told that at night, lava could be seen flowing from its peak. People there live a normal life as if the volcano were not present. The volcano erupts frequently, and residents are used to living with this.

Sicily:

Sicily (Sicilia, pronounced Sichilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. “Italy without Sicily doesn’t make a picture in the soul: it’s the key to everything.” noted Johann Wolfgang von Goethe more than 200 years ago. “But Italy isn’t Sicily and Sicily isn’t Italy. If you had been to Italy you can’t say you know Sicily. Sicily is different. Sicily is a modern ‘land’ with an ancient tradition that has remained alive, a land with lots of faces.”
 
 

Sicily is a large island, situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea at the cross roads of its traffic. It has been ruled by several civilizations from the three continents surrounding it. Its culture, architecture, music and cuisine are a mix of these various civilizations. The first external influence was Greek. This is evident till today as seen by the many Greek antiquities scattered throughout the island. Over the centuries, a mix of Romans, Arabs, Normans and Byzantines made what is now Sicily.

The Flag:

Sicily is an island of approximately triangular shape. Three cities form vertices of that triangle; they are Messina, Trapani and Sircusa. The flag represents the three cities each by a leg at the center of which is the Greek goddess, Medusa. Her face is surrounded by snakes representing evil, encircled by wings for the righteous. The flag is more frequently seen than the official Italian national flag. Even at places where we paid entrance fees, the official clerks had their name tags adorned with the Sicilian flag.
 
 
 
 

The Flag

Trip Participants:

Twenty five men and women made up the group for this untested bicycle route. There were three couples only, and the rest of us came without spouses or were singles. Eighteen souls were women and seven men. About one third of us were above 70 years old; the oldest was 77, the youngest 50. We had two birthday parties, one for Ben who turned 70 and the other for two ladies, Hank and Shannon at 74. The group was generally tough, very agile and good riders, certainly no pushover. This was a good bunch of cyclists. They were:

FRANK BEHRENDT, Leader, sweep@sbcglobal.net
NED AUDEH, nedaudeh@comcast.net
HANK BOLAND, henboland@aol.com
BARBARA BROWN, barbbrown212@msn.com
 
 

Barbara and Shanon	Frank the boss, Hank, and Carol

DOROTHY CURHAN, curdor@charter.net
SHANNON DAVENPORT, shandav1@earthlink.net
GLENDA FERNANDEZ, glendafernandez@msn.com
BOB & LINDA KAESS, bkaess@nctimes.net
CAROL LAVERY, mrsk@srv.net
 

Raisa, Glenda and Pat	Dorothy, Ellie, and Florinda

RAISA PIOTROWSKI, rpiotrowski@hfmus.com
NANCY KELSEY, nautinanci@aol.com
PATRICIA LARSEN, clella0@aol.com
KONNIE LEWIN, k12textbooks@syix.com
ELEANOR WHITNEY, lewhitne@rcn.com
 

Judy McGovern	Kani

FLORINDA MARTZ, aquarius@entermail.net
ALEX MCDOUGALD, alexpmcd@yahoo.com
JUDY MCGOVERN, cyclejam@msn.com
JOHN & BJ WITTWER, johnbj@dslextreme.com
 

BJ, Wil and John	Alex and Joan

BILL & BETTE MICHAUX, needle-brush@look.ca
JOAN MORGAN, jomorg@sccoast.net
RICK MUELLER, r.mueller9@verizon.net
BEN PATRICK, benpatrick@charter.net
JUDY SHIPENGROVER, jshipeng@acsu.buffalo.edu
 

Florinda, Ned and Rick	BJ, John, and Ben

 

	Painting
	Door