The center of Cefalu is on the other side of that mountainous rock.

It took me seven days to walk 226-kilometers from Messina to Greek-created Cefalu and its dominating fortified Rock that includes a well-known Temple of Diana. And what did I find when I had a three pm lunch on a terrace above the Mediterranean at the Bar del Faro on the eastern edge of town? A table of six Germans with mountain bikes, a French family of four and two Americans on their way back to Milan. Cefalu, it seems, is the must-see hot spot of Northern Sicily.

Construction on Cefalu’s Cathedral got underway in 1137.

Not that I let other foreigners turn me off. I’m maintaining my Cefalu base camp, in a small neoclassical squat/studio about thirty-nine steps from the town’s 12^th century Cathedral and its vibrant Italian-and-tourist-filled piazza, because I like sleeping on a tilted cobblestone street between the Rock and the Sea. I’ll launch my MedTrek to prestigious Palermo, Sicily’s capital that’s about 75 kilometers down the coast, tomorrow or the next day.

Text and Photos: Joel Stratte-McClure

Follow

About Joel

Joel Stratte-McClure has been a global trekker since the 1970s. He lived in France for over 30 years, working as a journalist, before he turned his attention to a unique life-time-project of walking the shores of the Mediterranean. The first 4,401 kilometers are explored in his inspirational and entertaining first book "The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean." The next 4,401 kilometers are covered in the gods-filled sequel, "The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean,” published on Valentine's Day 2013. The last 4,401 kilometers will be discussed in the last book of the trilogy currently entitled "The Idiot and the Odyssey III: Alexander the Great Walks the Mediterranean."