On the morning of 24 August in AD 79, as the story is usually told, Vesuvius blew its top, and Herculaneum, a small seaside town on the Bay of Naples, was buried under around twenty metres of volcanic material. Pompeii gets the headlines because it was buried in ash and pumice, but Herculaneum was overwhelmed by superheated surges of gas and ash, and that violence did something kinder to the evidence: it carbonised wood. Roof beams, doors, beds, shop shutters and even food were preserved in a way that Pompeii cannot match, and the town feels smaller, closer and more intact.
The site was found in the early eighteenth century when a well-digger struck marble, and the first excavations were tunnels cut by the Bourbon rulers in search of statues. Today the town is open to the sky, with mosaics, painted walls and two-storey houses on view, and the old boat sheds near the former shoreline hold the skeletons of the people who sheltered there, found in the 1980s. The Villa of the Papyri, a short distance away and still largely buried, yielded a library of charred scrolls that scholars are still trying to read.
This is not a place for a leisurely ride, and the bike is a tool for avoiding the worst of it. The streets around Ercolano and Portici are crowded, noisy and chaotic, with scooters, delivery vans and double-parked cars, and the Neapolitan approach to junctions is to treat them as a negotiation. Take your time, keep your distance and watch for loose manhole covers and slick basalt paving, which is slippery in the wet. Parking for bikes is easier than for cars, but leave nothing on the machine. Early morning is calmer.
Fuel is no trouble in a town of fifty thousand people, and the area is full of pizzerias, bakeries and bars serving good coffee. Once you have seen the ruins, the road up the flank of Vesuvius to the crater car park gives some tight bends and a fine view across the bay, though it can be busy at weekends and in summer. The wine of the slopes, Lacryma Christi, is worth tasting off the bike, when the day is done.