Parco Ciclistico Etna

Ragalna - Piano Vetore

Side Giro d'Italia

Sloping and irregular side, it is the most covered climb of vegetation of the whole volcano.

It starts from the south-west side, from the village of Ragalna (but to get there from the Piana di Catania, it still has to sweat and climb at least 10 kilometers) and climbs in 14 kilometers to the square of Piano Vetore, where the SKI School of Nicolosi is located and above all the arrival of the stage of the Giro d'Italia 2018.

The average slope deceives: 7.5%. In truth this is the most irregular side of all, where continuous ups and downs are interspersed with very steep sections.

Of the total difference in height of 808 meters, in fact, there are also two sections, short because less than 500 meters, of plain-descent: the first one at kilometer 6,6 the second at kilometer 8.5. Short refreshment, like the quiet before the storm, because then at an altitude of 1,350 when you pass the gate of the district Milia is waiting for a wall of 20% of about 1000 meters that will hold on to the handlebars with great firmness.

Leaving the district Milia you go inside a fragrant coniferous forest, between the southern slopes this is the favorite in the hot summers because when you leave the vegetation, you are already at an altitude of 1,800 meters at the Ariel Refuge and from that point in then the heat will never bother you.

But above all, the arrival awaits you after a wide curve to the left and there, emerging from the trees, you will open the majestic scenery of the volcano that rises majestically above the lawn of Piano Vetore.

The side is dedicated to Giovanni Visconti, a former professional cyclist born in Turin to a Sicilian father and Neapolitan mother, raised in Palermo and the pride of Sicilian cycling throughout.

Professional from 2005 to 2022, in his career he won 34 race, including three Italian road championships and the individual ranking of the UCI Europe Tour three times, as well as two stages in the Giro d'Italia where he wore the pink jersey for 9 days. Giovanni was able to pass through the Giro d'Italia and the Giro di Sicilia on the slopes of the Etna Volcano to inflame the support of his favorites with stages that are always on the attack. Closely linked to the Volcano, his second place in the stage behind the Ecuadorian Caicedo, in the stage with arrival uphill on the north side at Piano Provenzana in the 2020 Giro.