Why this ride
A 225 km round trip from Posillipo - roughly 4 h 15 in the saddle. On the way it passes Torre Annunziata: Villa A, Costiera Amalfitana, Torre Annunziata: Villa B and back through Costiera Amalfitana.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
District of Villa Manzo and Torre Annunziata: Villa B
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 225 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 15
- 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 41 km this is Amalfi Coast Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 41 km
- Named road
- Amalfi Coast Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. District of Villa Manzo
Posillipo is the hill that Naples looks at when it wants to feel it lives somewhere grand. It is a long ridge of soft volcanic tuff that runs out into the bay on the western side of the city, with villas, gardens and terraces, and views over the water to Vesuvius and the islands of Capri and Ischia. The Greeks called it Pausilypon, which means a pause from pain, and the Romans agreed: the rich built villas here, and the ruins of one of them, that of Vedius Pollio, can still be visited in a park above the sea. Virgil is said to be buried in the park near Mergellina, though the evidence is slim and the scholars are polite about it.
Read the complete District of Villa Manzo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
District of Villa Manzo is where the day begins. Next is Torre Annunziata: Villa A.
2. 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
Torre Annunziata: Villa A comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Costiera Amalfitana.
3. 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
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Costiera Amalfitana. Next is Torre Annunziata: Villa B.
4. Torre Annunziata: Villa B
Under the shadow of Vesuvius, in the middle of a modern working town, there is a Roman villa that was buried in the same eruption of AD 79 that destroyed Pompeii. Torre Annunziata stands on the ancient site of Oplontis, a seaside suburb of Pompeii, and its two excavated villas are part of the UNESCO listing of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata, inscribed in 1997. Villa A, the grander one, is famous for its frescoes and is linked with Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Nero. Villa B, the one on this ride, is different, a commercial building where wine and other goods were stored and traded, with a large courtyard and many amphorae found when it was dug up.
Read the complete Torre Annunziata: Villa B write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Torre Annunziata: Villa B, about halfway. Next is back through Costiera Amalfitana.
5. 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 sits at 106 km, about halfway. Next is back through Torre Annunziata: Villa A.
6. 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
back through Torre Annunziata: Villa A comes up about 194 km into the recorded legs. Next is District of Villa Manzo.
7. District of Villa Manzo
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete District of Villa Manzo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
District of Villa Manzo closes the day.
Leg by leg
District of Villa Manzo to Torre Annunziata: Villa A
District of Villa Manzo → Torre Annunziata: Villa A is 31 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 Torre Annunziata: Villa B
Costiera Amalfitana → Torre Annunziata: Villa B is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Torre Annunziata: Villa B to back through Costiera Amalfitana
Torre Annunziata: Villa B → back through Costiera Amalfitana is 40 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 District of Villa Manzo
back through Torre Annunziata: Villa A → District of Villa Manzo is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.