In its 100th year, the 2017 Giro d’Italia will follow a course through two islands and southern Italy, a route it has never taken before. The cycling race will take place from May 5 to 28, 2017, and will run from Alghero to Milan, where it has ended for 76 years.
For the fourth and fifth stages, riders will cross the sea to Sicily and resume the race there before heading onto the Italian mainland, in Reggio Calabria, for the remainder of the race. The final stage will take racers from the famous Monza racetrack in Monza to the Duomo in Milan.
The 3,572.2-kilometer (2,219 miles) course’s 21 stages will include six sprint stages, eight medium-difficulty climbing stages, and five difficult climbing stages. Two individual time trials, one in Umbria and one in the final stage that will determine the overall winner, will also be included.
Alghero, a Mediterranean coastal town on the island of Sardinia, is a medieval city of 44,000. Due to its Catalonian heritage, Catalan — the language spoken in Barcelona and the Pyrenees Mountains — is a co-official language of Alghero, along with Italian. Its coastal location and well-preserved and abundant historical and archaeological sites, which date back to the Neolithic age, have made Alghero a popular tourist spot.
Sardinia, the second-largest Mediterranean island, was settled as early as the Paleolithic era, as well as by ancient Romans and Greeks. Tourism has been increasing on the island as a whole in the last 20 years, with visitors drawn by rocky cliffs, pristine white-sand beaches and sparkling turquoise waters. The island also has its own unique cuisine that reflects both its agrarian and coastal heritage.
By Kathy McCabe
