Sicily Mostly Sport climbing 2,626 routes in region

Guidebooks

The best sources are online, as the latest guidebook La Roccia di Sole came out in 2015 and it's not available anywhere. The San Vito area has it's own guidebook which is regularly updated, Sicily-Rock - which is available for purchase in the El Bahira camping.

• Allclimb - https://allclimb.com/en/guides/sicily/ covers only the northern part of Sicily, and only sport climbing.

• Paid topos are availble in the app ClimbAdvisor - on Google play and Appstore. ClimbAdvisor covers most of Sicily including the bouldering areas, but leaves out the south-east unfortunately.

Rope climbing areas:

• San Vito lo Capo

  - you can't talk about climbing in Sicily without mentioning San Vito. This is the number 1 climbing destination here, and a truly world-class area with amazing sport climbing by the sea, as well as few multipitches. What makes this place special is that there are interesting routes also for beginners and advanced climbers, not just for pros.

• Palermo

  lives a bit in the shadow of San Vito, although the sport climbing here is comparatively good. There is more focus on trad and multipitch climbing here

• When it gets too hot at the coast, there are good options in the mountains - Parco delle Madonie being the prime example, but also the area around Etna

• The south-east of Sicily is a bit of hidden gem - areas around the cities of Ragusa and Siracusa feature countless crags in the many canyons here. If you are an ambitious crusher, this is your place to be as the climbing tends to be on the harder side.

Bouldering:: not too many people heard about the bouldering in Sicily, which is a shame because there are two great areas here, and both on sandstone blocks.

• Bosco Scorace

  - new crag near San Vito with around 200 lines on the blocks

• Bronte Blocks

  - blocks under the slopes of Etna with around 300 boulder problems

Equipment needed

The minumum needed is a 60m rope and 15 quickdraws as that's sufficient for most routes here, but it's better to bring a 70m rope and 18 quickdraws so that you can climb almost everything. For multipitches you will need extra trad gear and slings

Rest day tips There's plenty to do in Sicily, even if you didn't want to climb at all.

north-west

• Erice - nice historical village with great view
• Zingaro national park - ideal for hiking or staying on a beach, but as of 2020 still closed due to a local fire
• Hot springs - they are a bit further from San Vito, but definitely worth it. For free.
• Palermo - nice city centre if you have the driver skills to survive getting through the traffic.
• Tempio di Segesta - ancient temple and archeological area
• Monreale - historic town near Palermo with a famous cathedral

south-west

• Parco archeologico di Selinute - nice archeological site
• Scala dei Turchi - impressive cliffs above the sea
• Vally of the temples - famous archeological site near Agrigento

north-east

• Etna - unmissable volcano, although during the climbing season might be very cold and requiring winter gear
• Taormina - nice historical city with great view of Etna

south-east

• Three historical cities, each of them a gem - Ragusa Ibla, Noto and Siracusa
• Cavagrande del Cassibile - Sicilian Grand canyon, great for hiking
• Pantalica - canyon with a large necropolis, a nice hike as well

central sicily from north to south

• Cefalù - nice historical city
• Parco della Madonna - impressive mountain range with endless hiking posibilities
• Enna - nice historical town with great view over a large part of Sicily
• Villa Romana del Casale - famous Roman villa with impressive mosaics