Why this ride
From Maiori it runs 191 km to Maiori; allow about 3 h 51 of riding. The stops in between: Pompeii, Herculaneum, Villa dei Misteri and Theatre of Herculaneum.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Costiera Amalfitana and Theatre of Herculaneum
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 191 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 51
- 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
Amalfi Coast Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 42 km this is Amalfi Coast Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 42 km
- Named road
- Amalfi Coast Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
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 Pompeii.
2. 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 comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Herculaneum.
3. Herculaneum
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.
Read the complete Herculaneum write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Herculaneum. Next is Villa dei Misteri.
4. Villa dei Misteri
Outside the walls of Pompeii, a few hundred metres from the Herculaneum Gate, stands a villa that holds one of the strangest paintings in the Roman world. The Villa of the Mysteries was a large country house and wine estate, and in one of its rooms a continuous frieze, nearly life-sized, runs around all four walls against a vivid red background, the famous Pompeian red. The figures include women, a young initiate, a satyr, a winged figure with a whip and the god Dionysus himself, and they seem to show a ritual of initiation into his cult, though nobody has ever been sure of the exact meaning. The paintings date from about the middle of the first century BC, some decades before the eruption.
Read the complete Villa dei Misteri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa dei Misteri, about halfway. Next is Theatre of Herculaneum.
5. Theatre of Herculaneum
Herculaneum is the smaller, better-preserved sister of Pompeii, and the theatre is one of its hidden treasures. When Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, Herculaneum was buried not by falling ash, as Pompeii was, but by a series of pyroclastic surges, which killed the people who had fled to the boathouses on the beach and then entombed the town under about twenty metres of hardened volcanic material. The deep burial protected wooden beams, furniture, food and even the upper floors of houses. The theatre was found in the early eighteenth century by workers digging a well, and for years explorers tunnelled in the dark to reach it, taking away statues for the Bourbon king of Naples.
Read the complete Theatre of Herculaneum write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Theatre of Herculaneum sits at 74 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa dei Misteri.
6. back through Villa dei Misteri
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa dei Misteri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa dei Misteri comes up about 114 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Herculaneum.
7. back through Herculaneum
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Herculaneum write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 132 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Herculaneum. Next is back through Pompeii.
8. back through Pompeii
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Pompeii, late in the day. Next is Costiera Amalfitana.
9. 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
The route ends here after 191 km.
Leg by leg
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 Herculaneum
Pompeii → Herculaneum is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Herculaneum to Villa dei Misteri
Herculaneum → Villa dei Misteri is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa dei Misteri to Theatre of Herculaneum
Villa dei Misteri → Theatre of Herculaneum is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Theatre of Herculaneum to back through Villa dei Misteri
Theatre of Herculaneum → back through Villa dei Misteri is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa dei Misteri to back through Herculaneum
back through Villa dei Misteri → back through Herculaneum is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Herculaneum to back through Pompeii
back through Herculaneum → back through Pompeii is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pompeii to Costiera Amalfitana
back through Pompeii → Costiera Amalfitana is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.