Palermo is located near natural areas and highlands that hide many trails for all levels. All you have to do is take a look at the departures from the port of Civitavecchia (one of the largest in the peninsula), board your bike, and take note of the most popular routes to visit Palermo by bike.
The first site we want to tell you about is Favorita Park, the second largest in Italy after Rome’s Appian Way Park. It’s an amazing park that reaches heights up to six hundred meters and also includes the promontory of Monte Pellegrino.
It connects to Palermo from the northern coast, where the most popular beach in Palermo is located: Mondello. It is a green lung of the city that once served as the private garden of King Ferdinand, where he used to lose himself on horseback trails or go hunting.
From a reserve, it has transformed into a lush forest allowing long walks, trekking, hiking, and adventurous bike excursions from which you can depart directly from the center of Palermo.
Monte Pecoraro overlooks Cinisi and is one of the highest in Northwest Sicily with its nearly one thousand meters in height. From the summit, it is possible to see the snow-capped peak of Mount Etna when the sky is clear and blue… basically, from that height you can spot almost the entire island!
The mountain is a mix of rocks, wooded areas, and native vegetation of great value. It is also equipped with trekking and biking trails that, from time to time, will bring you to wonderful and exciting viewpoints.
If you are looking for an alternative and exciting path, you absolutely must try the Ruins of San Giorgio Abbey trail. It is a route of nearly two kilometers that extends over an elevation change of about thirty meters and is considered easy to walk.
From the highest part of the inhabited center of Gratteri, near the castle, there is a dirt road heading south that allows you to reach the iconic remains of the Abbey surrounded by oaks and shrubs. These ruins are testimony to the reformist Augustinian settlements around 1100. The Abbey was founded by Duke Roger and is an important testimony also to the Norman and Byzantine past given its distinctive style.
Continuing from the Abbey, it is possible to proceed towards the trail leading to Pizzo di Pilo and Rocca del Monaco on paths for walking or biking, which will bring you to the delightful village of Collesano. Here you can stop for a snack and enjoy the warm hospitality of the locals.
Finally, we suggest you pass through the Madonie, a mountainous area east of Palermo and just steps from the coast overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. Here stands one of the main massifs, Carbonara, which reaches nearly two thousand meters high and ranks second after Etna among the highest mountains on the island. With the establishment of Madonie Park in 1989, the area has gained growing interest from hikers, geology enthusiasts, and nature lovers.
The Park is renowned for its amazing biodiversity offered to its visitors and extends over forty thousand hectares inhabited by over 1,400 different plant species. This richness is due to the sharp transition from high altitudes to the sea and thus embraces many micro-ecosystems coexisting together.
