Why this ride
A 276 km round trip from Caserta - roughly 5 h 04 in the saddle. On the way it passes Historic Centre of Naples, Torre Annunziata: Villa A, Costiera Amalfitana and Pompeii.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with and Pompeii
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 276 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 04
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
Scenic road chapters
18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with → Historic Centre of Naples
This part of the ride is 32 km of 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with → Historic Centre of Naples.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 32 km
Amalfi Coast Road
For about 41 km this is Amalfi Coast Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 41 km
- Named road
- Amalfi Coast Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with
When Charles of Bourbon, king of Naples, decided to build a royal palace to rival Versailles, he did not do things by halves. The Reggia di Caserta, begun in 1752 to a design by Luigi Vanvitelli, is one of the largest royal palaces in the world, with some twelve hundred rooms, four inner courtyards, a theatre and a grand staircase that has appeared in films including Star Wars, where it stood in for the palace of Naboo. Behind it, a park stretches for three kilometres up the hillside, with fountains, statues and a long chain of pools and cascades fed by an aqueduct that Vanvitelli built specially, ending at a great waterfall at the top.
Read the complete 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with is where the day begins. Next is Historic Centre of Naples.
2. Historic Centre of Naples
Naples is not a city you ride through so much as one you survive and then fall in love with. The historic centre, a UNESCO site since 1995, sits on the street plan of Neapolis, the Greek new city founded around the sixth century BC, and the three ancient decumani still run straight through it, the most famous being Spaccanapoli, the street that splits Naples in two. Along them, churches, palaces, shrines, workshops and laundry-hung alleys are packed together with an intensity found nowhere else in Europe.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Naples write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Historic Centre of Naples comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Torre Annunziata: Villa A.
3. Torre Annunziata: Villa A
In the busy, scruffy town of Torre Annunziata, on the coast south of Naples, a high wall hides one of the most extraordinary Roman villas ever found. Villa A at Oplontis, often called the Villa of Poppaea because it is thought to have belonged to the family of Nero's second wife, was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 and rediscovered in the eighteenth century, with large-scale excavations in the twentieth. It is part of the UNESCO site that includes Pompeii and Herculaneum, but sees a fraction of their visitors, which is one of its great pleasures.
Read the complete Torre Annunziata: Villa A write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Torre Annunziata: Villa A. Next is Costiera Amalfitana.
4. Costiera Amalfitana
The Amalfi coast road is the reason many riders first dreamed of Italy, and it lives up to the legend and then some, with a few catches. The SS163 Amalfitana, carved into the cliffs above the sea in the nineteenth century, winds along the southern side of the Sorrento peninsula from Positano to Vietri sul Mare, with hundreds of bends, sheer drops, tunnels, bridges and villages clinging to the rocks. Amalfi itself, a small town of about five thousand people at the mouth of a ravine, was once a powerful maritime republic that rivalled Venice and Genoa in the Middle Ages, and its cathedral, with its striped facade and Arab-Norman cloister, is a reminder of that glory.
Read the complete Costiera Amalfitana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Costiera Amalfitana, about halfway. Next is Pompeii.
5. Pompeii
Nobody in Pompeii knew that Vesuvius was a volcano. The town had been shaken by a violent earthquake in 62 AD and was still rebuilding in August 79, when the mountain exploded, burying the streets under a rain of pumice and then a hot flow of ash. About two thousand people died in the town, and the ash preserved bread in ovens, graffiti on walls, ruts in the stone roads and the hollows left by bodies. Excavation began in 1748, and in the 1860s the archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli poured plaster into the hollows to produce the figures you see in the museum. UNESCO listed the archaeological areas of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 1997.
Read the complete Pompeii write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pompeii sits at 107 km, about halfway. Next is back through Costiera Amalfitana.
6. back through Costiera Amalfitana
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Costiera Amalfitana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Costiera Amalfitana comes up about 179 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Torre Annunziata: Villa A.
7. back through Torre Annunziata: Villa A
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Torre Annunziata: Villa A write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 220 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Torre Annunziata: Villa A. Next is back through Historic Centre of Naples.
8. back through Historic Centre of Naples
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Naples write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Historic Centre of Naples, late in the day. Next is 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with.
9. 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 276 km.
Leg by leg
18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with to Historic Centre of Naples
18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with → Historic Centre of Naples is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Naples to Torre Annunziata: Villa A
Historic Centre of Naples → Torre Annunziata: Villa A is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Torre Annunziata: Villa A to Costiera Amalfitana
Torre Annunziata: Villa A → Costiera Amalfitana is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Costiera Amalfitana to Pompeii
Costiera Amalfitana → Pompeii is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pompeii to back through Costiera Amalfitana
Pompeii → back through Costiera Amalfitana is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Costiera Amalfitana to back through Torre Annunziata: Villa A
back through Costiera Amalfitana → back through Torre Annunziata: Villa A is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Torre Annunziata: Villa A to back through Historic Centre of Naples
back through Torre Annunziata: Villa A → back through Historic Centre of Naples is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Naples to 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with
back through Historic Centre of Naples → 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.