Palermo is located near natural areas and highlands that hide many routes for all levels. All you have to do is take a look at the departures from the port of Civitavecchia (one of the largest on the peninsula), board your bike, and take note of the most popular itineraries for visiting Palermo by bike.
The first site we want to tell you about is the Favorita Park, the second largest in Italy after the Appian Way Park in Rome. It is an amazing park reaching heights up to six hundred meters and also includes the promontory of Mount Pellegrino.
It connects to Palermo from the northern coast, where the most popular beach of Palermo is located: Mondello. It is a green city lung that once served as the private garden of King Ferdinand where he used to wander the paths on horseback or go hunting.
From a reserve, it has transformed into a very green forest that allows for long walks, trekking, hiking and adventurous bike excursions for which you can start directly from the center of Palermo.
The Monte Pecoraro overlooks Cinisi and is one of the highest in the North West of Sicily with its almost one thousand meters of height. From the summit, you can also see the snow-capped peak of Etna when the sky is clear and blue… basically from that height you can glimpse almost the entire island!
The mountain is a combination of rocks, wooded areas, and native vegetation of great value. Additionally, it is equipped with trekking and biking trails that, from time to time, will take you to wonderful and exciting views.
If you are looking for an alternative and exciting path, you absolutely must try the one to the Ruins of the Abbey of San Giorgio. We are talking about a route of almost two kilometers that stretches over an elevation gain 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 that goes south and allows you to reach the iconic remains of the Abbey surrounded by oaks and shrubs. These remains are a testimony to the reformed Augustinian settlements around 1100. The Abbey was founded by Duke Roger and is also an important testimony to the Norman and Byzantine past given the style that distinguishes it.
Continuing from the Abbey, it is also possible to continue towards the path that leads to Pizzo di Pilo and Rocca del Monaco on routes by foot or bike that will take you to the delightful village of Collesano. Here you can stop for a snack and enjoy the warm hospitality of the local people.
Finally, we suggest you visit the Madonie, a mountainous area east of Palermo and just a short distance from the coast overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. Here stands one of the main massifs, the Carbonara, which reaches almost two thousand meters in height and ranks second only to Etna among the tallest mountains on the island. With the establishment of the Madonie Park in 1989, the area has gained increasing interest from hikers, geology enthusiasts, and nature lovers.
The Park is renowned for its incredible biodiversity that it offers to visitors and extends over forty thousand hectares inhabited by more than 1400 different plant species. This richness is due to the rapid transition from high altitudes to the sea and, therefore, encompasses many micro-ecosystems coexisting together.
