Last time I watched Giro d'Italia was on 5 June 1999, twelve years ago.

On that day Marco Pantani was stopped the start of race and I realized it was useless to keep following this sport, due to its doping issues.

In that period, I had a passion for cyclism, but I completely ignored Mount Etna, and as most etnean citizens, I just used to go there for pick chestnuts.

Yesterday, 15 May 2011, the Giro d'Italiia arrived on Mount Etna, crossing it from two sides and arriving at Rifugio Sapienza. Many thing changed since 1999 for me and for the cyclism and yesteday I watched the race, ipnotized from Mount Etna images.

During these years, I left this wonderful land and the passion for Mount Etna arised, leading me to create this site. Yesterday, Mount Etna brought me closer to cyclism (as spectator, of course). Watching tv, I thought to three things:

1) Cyclism: Alberto Contador won the race; I don't know anything about him (my knowledge ends at Indurain, Armstrong and Pantani) except that he's the strongest and will probably win Giro and Tour. Dear Alberto, I just hope you raised your hands to the sky with the absolute certainty you played fair, for the rispect Mount Etna deserves and for your sport integrity

2) My beautyful land: the cyclists went closes to 70% of trails/caves/nature described on this site. Check the page "Transport" to find the list of attractions you can find on each road crossed by the race.

3) The sadness for not being there, and for being forced to live 1500 km faraway. I can just tell Mount Etna from this site, but this a different question... overall, there's the pride for the wonderful images I watched, as many other people did.

Two Italian tourists explored Mount Etna with the information we gave them. They thanked us and also told us about the poorer Etna knowledge, which was also shown by the Tourist Information Centers. The original text is only available in Italian