Sicilian Grantour GROUP 1. 8th – 14th SEPTEMBER 2019 GROUP 2. 12th – 18th SEPTEMBER 2019 SICILIAN GRANTOUR The Club Mulholland Grantour has continued to grow in popularity. For 2019, we have decided to run the event in two groups that do overlap slightly. It will be limited to 10 cars per group, so ensure you book your place quickly as 2018 was a sell-out. And where are we going? Sicily. What could be more perfect? SICILIAN GRANTOUR DAY 1 SUNDAY 8TH SEPTEMBER 2019 Welcome to Sicily. Our first day is a rendezvous day, so arrive at leisure and check in to the utterly beautiful Verdura Resort on the West coast of Sicily. What will you find at this hotel? Spa and thalassotherapy pools, helipad, gardens, two championship-level 18-hole golf courses and a nine-hole par three course, private beach, fitness studio, salon, free WiFi throughout. In your room: flatscreen TV with satellite channels, pay-per-view films, well-stocked in-room bar, CD and DVD player, and Ortigia toiletries. Perhaps nine holes on the par 3 followed by a swim before the cars arrive on the transporter? You can obviously drive if you prefer, but if you take the option to ship the car, we will confirm the cost once number of cars going are confirmed. We would recommend budgeting for the transport to cost approx. £1,500 per car. You can ship your cars in covered transporters. 90% of members usually choose this option. SICILIAN GRANTOUR DAY 1 VERDURA RESORT “A fleet of buggies ferry one from the main car park at the gate, past the golf links to the main hotel complex. Standards of service are high, and the spa staff in particular are top-notch. Spreading over 4,000 coolly modernist metres, the Verdura’s standalone wellness centre is probably the top facility in the whole of Sicily, and well up there among Italy’s leading hotel spas.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH SICILIAN GRANTOUR DAY 2 MONDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER 2019 Today the Grantour starts proper. And no trip to Sicily would be complete without doing the legendary Targa Florio route. The Targa Florio Classic still runs (a couple of weeks after we are there), but the true original Targa Florio was an open road endurance road race held in the mountains near Palermo. It started in 1906 and was part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 to 1973, where the 45 mile ‘track’ was lapped 11 times. It was discontinued as a sportscar event in 1977 due to safety concerns. It is this 45 mile loop that we will drive today after some stunning roads from the hotel. In total, we will be seven hours in the saddle today and cover 350km. Considering we will stop for lunch on the Targa Florio route and have lots of stops to get pictures and throw a drone up, we will be out for approx 9 hours, so be prepared for an 8am breakfast with a 9am departure. Dinner will be back in the Verdura Resort this evening and you should have time for a quick swim once we complete this incredible first day of driving. We have set the bar high. If you are taking a partner that may not want a full day of driving, they are of course able to relax at the hotel instead! TARGA FLORIO BELMOND GRAND HOTEL TIMEO MOUNT ETNA VERDURA RESORT AUTODROMO PERGUSA SICILIAN GRANTOUR The map above shows our Grantour in full. We have carefully selected the very finest roads and, as you can see, will cover much of this beautiful island. The upper East side boasts the best roads, so we will spend longer based at the Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo hotel. By basing ourself largely at one hotel, that gives any guests the ability to relax at the hotel should they want a break from driving. Lord knows who would want to – but the option is there! SICILIAN GRANTOUR DAY 3 TUESDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 Today we cross the entire island, from West to East. We leave the fabulous Verdura Resort and will arrive at the Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo in the late afternoon. A total of 6h 45m and 375km of driving, so a 09.30am departure after checking out should ensure you are at the Belmond for 6pm – depending on speeds and traffic. Lunch will be open to us and we will just stop somewhere en-route. Dinner will be in the hotel. But first, the driving. The roads from Bivona to Agrigento, the SS118, offers stunning roads that can compete with many of the best roads in the Alps. Fast, sweeping and well sighted. We shadow the coast along the SS115 until we reach Licata before slowly making our way slightly North East until we near Catania. We have a perfect navigational aid during this day – Mount Etna, the most active volcano in Europe. At 3,329m high (though that changes regularly as eruptions happen!), You will be able to see where we are headed for many hours. Etna is the heart of Sicily and it has a natural pull. We will navigate up to it and then circle around in a clockwise direction. The roads around Etna are incredible, so we will finish strong, ready for another day of similar roads tomorrow. SICILIAN GRANTOUR DAYS 3 – 7 BELMOND GRAND HOTEL TIMEO “The luxurious Timeo, set in one of Sicily’s prettiest towns, not only offers exceptional services and facilities, but also one of the best views in Italy, straight onto Europe’s largest active volcano. Use of the beach facilities at sister hotel the Sant’Andrea is the icing on the cake. The Timeo is right next to the entrance to the magnificent third-century BC Greek amphitheatre and the views down the contorted coastline to the ever-puffing Etna are among the most memorable in Italy.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH SICILIAN GRANTOUR The roads around Mount Etna are like no other you will have driven – at least with Club Mulholland. The fact that the volcano is constantly active means the landscape is constantly changing, yet the roads are ever fabulous. The fertile volcanic soils support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the lower slopes of the mountain and the broad Plain of Catania to the south. SICILIAN GRANTOUR DAY’S 4 & 5 WEDNESDAY 11TH – THURSDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER 2019 Once we have established a base at the Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo, we can truly settle in as we will be staying here for four nights. On Wednesday we will be packing light and taking to the road to do the ‘Mount Etna Northern Loop’. If you look at our map on page 6, you will be able to see our route that will go to the south of the volcano and then loop up to the North Sicily coastline. This will be the best roads we have done to date – some brilliant roads, some tight and twisty; others being long and sweeping. On the Thursday, we will tackle the ‘Mount Etna Southern Loop’. This route takes a wide arc that goes down as far as Caltagirone but only once we have driven the volcano pass to Mareneve – what a start to the day! After reaching Caltagirone via the fast SS417, our return journey heads towards Enna, an old city in the mountains that offers incredible views of the heart if Sicily. We continue eastward towards Adrano which is actually located on the foot of the volcano before heading due North around the northern side of Etna. Incredible roads before the short blast back to the hotel. SICILIAN GRANTOUR SOME OF THE FINEST DRIVING ROADS ANYWHERE “We had to take a look at the old world, where it is at its most awkward, its most twisted and gnarled, and its deepest. Sicily, a country with almost no history and an anything-goes openness for a world in which tradition and experience go back to a time no one can remember. But which allows even the commonplace to take root in the unconscious. Sicily is “intensive” taken to a higher level with an unbelievable abundance of mountains, sea and natural beauty. A place you will not forget, especially the roads.” CURVES MAGAZINE SICILIAN GRANTOUR BELMOND GRAND HOTEL TIMEO We are trying something new to us for 2019, and that is to stay at one hotel for longer than just one evening. Given the close proximity of great roads around Mount Etna and the Belmond hotel, we can create a base and then return there after each long day of great roads. The Timeo also has a sister hotel, with a complimentary shuttle service to whisk you down the hill to the seaside hotel, the Belmond Sant’Andrea whose private beach, sun-loungers and other facilities are available to Timeo guests free of charge. This helps make the Belmond hotel an attractive option for us two-for-one including restaurants at both hotels too. Executive chef Roberto Toro’s fresh, seasonal, modern menus feature the likes of spaghetti with clams on a grouper carpaccio and seared tuna steak with a zesty orange sauce. Flavours are predominantly Sicilian and the fuss is kept to a minimum. The terrace bar is a great place to kick off the evening with a signature Etna Spritz (made with local orange liqueur). Breakfast comes with volcano views and a groaning table of goodies including freshly squeezed juices and granitas, porridge, French toast and even fillet of beef to order. Yeah, this’ll do for us. SICILIAN GRANTOUR Our annual Grantour is about the roads, the cars and the people driving them.