CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
The SS163 is barely wide enough for the buses that use it, which is exactly why a motorcycle is the right vehicle here. Ride it at first light and it is one of the great coast roads; ride it at noon in August and it is a car park with a view. Ravello above it is the quiet alternative.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 2 km this is Amalfi Coast Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Sorrento sits on top of a cliff, and the whole town is aware of the drop. It lies on the northern side of the peninsula that separates the Bay of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno, about fifty metres above the water, with Vesuvius filling the view across the bay and the island of Capri visible from the headlands. Lemon groves, some of them netted against frost, cover the slopes behind the town, and the lemons are the foundation of limoncello, the sweet yellow liqueur that is sold in every shop. According to myth, this is the coast of the Sirens, who lured sailors onto the rocks with their singing.
Read the complete Sorrento write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sorrento is where the day begins. Next is Positano.
Positano is a town built on a staircase. Houses in pink, ochre and white pile up the steep hillside above a small, pebbly beach, so close together that they seem to hold each other up, and from the coast road above, the whole place looks like a painting hung on a cliff. It is the most photographed town on the Amalfi coast, and the view of it from the road, with the sea spread out below and the green-domed church at the bottom, is the reason for the stop.
Read the complete Positano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Positano comes up 18 km in. Next is Amalfi.
Amalfi was once the capital of a maritime republic that traded across the Mediterranean, and it is hard to believe, looking at the small, crowded town squeezed into a ravine at the water's edge. For a few centuries around the year 1000, it rivalled Pisa and Venice, with a fleet that sailed to Constantinople, Egypt and Syria, and a population many times larger than it has now. Its maritime laws, the Tabula Amalphitana, were respected in ports across the sea. A great earthquake and storm in the fourteenth century swept much of the old town into the sea, and Amalfi never regained its power.
Read the complete Amalfi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Ravello, climbing 355 m.
Ravello sits about 365 metres above the Amalfi Coast, high enough that the crowds on the shore below sound like a distant radio. Instead of beaches, it offers terraces, gardens and a sense that it has seen all this before. The town perches on a ridge between the Dragone and Reginna valleys, above the sea and the busier resort of Amalfi, and from its balconies you look down on lemon terraces, white villas and the blue curve of the Gulf of Salerno.
Read the complete Ravello write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ravello, about halfway at 365 m. The road climbs 355 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 2 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Salerno, mostly downhill.
Salerno is the working city at the eastern end of the Amalfi Coast, and it rarely gets the attention of its prettier neighbours. A busy port with about 125,000 people, it sits on the curve of the Gulf of Salerno, backed by steep hills, and it has an old town of narrow lanes, a long seafront promenade and a distinct, unpretentious character. After the beautiful frenzy of the coast road, many riders find it a relief to be in a place where people just live.
Read the complete Salerno write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Salerno sits at 73 km, late in the day. You lose 355 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is back to Sorrento.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sorrento write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 119 km.