Costiera Amalfitana and Paestum

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region.

2. 2. 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.

   Read the complete Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region comes up about 95 km into the recorded legs. Next is Paestum.

3. 3. 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.

   Read the complete Paestum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 230 km into the recorded legs you reach Paestum. Next is back through Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region.

4. 4. back through Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Punta Licosa and the Mount Stella region, late in the day. Next is Costiera Amalfitana.

5. 5. 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 at Costiera Amalfitana. That is the ride.