Customer Reviews

Walking in Sicily: Short and long distance walks (Cicerone Guides)

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I just returned from Sicily where four of us -- hikers with many years of experience walking in various places around the world -- used this "guide" for walks in Southeastern Sicily. All four of us found this to be one of the worst walking guides we've ever used. The one useful part of the guide is identifying parks and preserves for walking, however we could have found all of those with a simple map. The actual descriptions of hikes were fraught with inaccuracies in distance, landmarks, etc. It's a great gift if you want to have a laugh watching your friends tramping back and forth across streams trying to find nonexistent trails or tangled up in brambles when a so-called trail simply disappears. We didn't find it so amusing and had much more fun following the trails mapped out by park and preserve officials. Keep your rucksack lightweight: don't bring along this guide on your next walking trip in Sicily.

This book covers 46 walks in Sicily ranging from coastal walks to walks in the more hilly or mountainous interior terrain. Several walks are on the Egadi and Aeolian Islands, off the western and northern coasts of Sicily, respectively.

This review is of the second edition, published in 2006 by Cicerone. It is 256 pages and would fit easily in a large pocket. Cicerone publishes guides for walking, trekking, climbing, and cycling.

The book begins with an introduction containing a brief history of Sicily, comments on the island's geography and landforms, and a few remarks about the Mafia in Sicily. There are suggestions about what to take with you to Sicily as well as how to get there and brief discussions about accommodations, telephones, and food and drink in Sicily. Additionally, the flowers, trees, and wildlife of Sicily are discussed.

The heart of the book are descriptions of the various walks. For each walk the approximate time to do the walk is given, as well as the distance, and the difficulty of the walk, graded 1-3. There are directions to the walk's starting point, both by public transportation, as well as by driving. Each walk description includes a sketch map of the area, although a few walks are grouped together on the same sketch map. For each walk, there are listings of more detailed maps that are available. The narrative for the walks mentions major sights along the way, either manmade or natural. When appropriate, there may be some historical or cultural information about the vicinity. Most walk descriptions also include a color photo.

The book is very appealing and certainly makes me want to return to Sicily and do some of these hikes. The author has a good writing style and appears to know Sicily well. She is English, but is married to a Venetian and works as a translator and free-lance writer. She has written other guides for Cicerone including walking guides to the Dolomites, the Central Italian Alps, and Corsica; and guides to treks in the Appenines, the Italian Alps, and the Dolomites.