Why this ride
From Posillipo it runs 139 km to Posillipo; allow about 2 h 45 of riding. It goes by way of Villa dei Papiri, Villa dei Misteri, Herculaneum and Archaeological Areas of Pompei.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
District of Casale and Santo Strato and Archaeological Areas of Pompei
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 139 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 45
- 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. District of Casale and Santo Strato
Posillipo takes its name from a Greek phrase meaning a pause from pain, and the Romans, who knew a good view when they saw one, covered the ridge with villas. It is the green promontory that divides the Bay of Naples from the Gulf of Pozzuoli, a hill of soft yellow tuff thrown up by the volcanoes of the Phlegraean Fields, and its western slope falls into the sea in cliffs and small coves. The Casale and Santo Strato district sits on the sea side of the hill, where terraced gardens, old walls and tiny ports survived the building boom that swallowed so much of Naples.
Read the complete District of Casale and Santo Strato write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
District of Casale and Santo Strato is where the day begins. Next is Villa dei Papiri.
2. Villa dei Papiri
The Villa of the Papyri is mostly still buried. It was a huge seaside villa at Herculaneum, on the slope below Vesuvius, and when the eruption of 79 AD sent a mud and ash flow down on the town, the villa was covered by twenty metres of hard volcanic rock. In the 1750s, the Bourbon engineers who were digging in the area tunnelled down and found marble statues, bronzes of rare quality and a library of around 1,800 papyrus scrolls, charred into black lumps by the heat. The scrolls, many of them works by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, have been read in recent years using X-ray imaging and artificial intelligence. The villa may have belonged to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Piso, though this is a guess. The villa in Malibu that houses the Getty Museum is a copy of it.
Read the complete Villa dei Papiri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa dei Papiri comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa dei Misteri.
3. 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
about 35 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa dei Misteri. Next is Herculaneum.
4. 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
Herculaneum, about halfway. Next is Archaeological Areas of Pompei.
5. Archaeological Areas of Pompei
Pompeii is the most famous ruin in the world, and it deserves its fame in a way that is hard to explain until you have walked its streets. In AD 79 Vesuvius erupted for two days, burying the town under about four metres of pumice and ash, and what was left was a Roman provincial city caught mid-sentence, with graffiti on the walls, loaves in an oven and a dog chained in a doorway. The letters of Pliny the Younger describe the eruption from across the bay, and they are the first account of a volcanic event by an eyewitness. Excavations began in 1748, and about two-thirds of the town is now uncovered.
Read the complete Archaeological Areas of Pompei write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Archaeological Areas of Pompei sits at 69 km, about halfway. Next is back through Herculaneum.
6. 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
back through Herculaneum comes up about 87 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Villa dei Misteri.
7. 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
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Villa dei Misteri. Next is back through Villa dei Papiri.
8. back through Villa dei Papiri
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa dei Papiri 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 Papiri, late in the day. Next is District of Casale and Santo Strato.
9. District of Casale and Santo Strato
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete District of Casale and Santo Strato 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 139 km.
Leg by leg
District of Casale and Santo Strato to Villa dei Papiri
District of Casale and Santo Strato → Villa dei Papiri is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa dei Papiri to Villa dei Misteri
Villa dei Papiri → Villa dei Misteri is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa dei Misteri to Herculaneum
Villa dei Misteri → Herculaneum is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Herculaneum to Archaeological Areas of Pompei
Herculaneum → Archaeological Areas of Pompei is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archaeological Areas of Pompei to back through Herculaneum
Archaeological Areas of Pompei → 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 Villa dei Misteri
back through 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 Villa dei Papiri
back through Villa dei Misteri → back through Villa dei Papiri is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa dei Papiri to District of Casale and Santo Strato
back through Villa dei Papiri → District of Casale and Santo Strato is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.