Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park w and Costiera Amalfitana
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
657 km
Riding-time estimate
13 h 16
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.
From Vallo della Lucania it runs 657 km to Vallo della Lucania; allow about 13 h 16 of riding. It goes by way of Paestum, Capo Palinuro, Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region and Costiera Amalfitana. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park w
South of Salerno, past the temples of Paestum, the coast bends out into a great knuckle of mountains, and inland from the beaches the Cilento national park climbs into wooded massifs that most visitors never see. The park, together with Paestum, ancient Velia and the Certosa di Padula, is a World Heritage Site, recognised as a cultural landscape shaped by Greek colonists, Lucanian tribes and long monastic tradition.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park w is where the day begins. Next is Paestum.
2. Paestum
Paestum itself, with its three magnificent Doric temples built by Greek colonists, lies down on the coastal plain south of Salerno, and it is part of a single UNESCO listing that covers the whole Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, together with the ancient city of Velia and the Certosa di Padula. This point is in the wild interior of that park, close to Monte Cervati, the highest mountain in Campania.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Paestum comes up about 77 km into the recorded legs. Next is Capo Palinuro.
3. Capo Palinuro
The cape itself, a rocky headland full of sea caves, lies some way west around the coast, past Marina di Camerota, and both belong to the same wild southern end of the Cilento. The name comes from Virgil: Palinurus was the helmsman of Aeneas, who fell asleep at the tiller, tumbled overboard and washed up on this shore, where he was killed by the locals. His ghost, in the Aeneid, asks for a proper burial, and the cape was named for him.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 148 km into the recorded legs you reach Capo Palinuro. Next is Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region.
4. Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region
According to legend, the siren Leucosia threw herself into the sea here after failing to lure Odysseus to his doom, and her body became the little island off Punta Licosa. It is a fine story for a fine place. Punta Licosa is a low, wild headland on the coast of the Cilento, south of Salerno, covered in Mediterranean scrub, pines and holm oaks, with rocky coves and clear water, and it forms part of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, listed by UNESCO in 1998 as a cultural landscape. Behind it rises Monte Stella, the mountain that gives its name to the surrounding hills, dotted with small villages and terraced olive groves.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region, about halfway. Next is Costiera Amalfitana.
5. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 657 km.
Leg by leg
Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park w to Paestum
Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park w → Paestum is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paestum to Capo Palinuro
Paestum → Capo Palinuro is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Capo Palinuro to Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region
Capo Palinuro → Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region to Costiera Amalfitana
Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region → Costiera Amalfitana is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Costiera Amalfitana to back through Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region
Costiera Amalfitana → back through Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region to back through Capo Palinuro
back through Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region → back through Capo Palinuro is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Capo Palinuro to back through Paestum
back through Capo Palinuro → back through Paestum is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paestum to Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park w
back through Paestum → Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park w is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.