Why this ride
73 km from Posillipo to Posillipo, about 1 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of Villa dei Papiri, Villa dei Misteri and back through Villa dei Papiri.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Marechiaro and Villa dei Misteri
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 73 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 33
- 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. Marechiaro
There is a song about Marechiaro, and for once the song is not exaggerating. The little fishing hamlet on the Posillipo headland, at the western edge of the Bay of Naples, inspired a poem by Salvatore Di Giacomo in the 1880s about a window and a flower, and Francesco Paolo Tosti set it to music, so that "Marechiare" has been sung in Neapolitan kitchens and concert halls ever since. Locals will point out the so-called Fenestella, a small window on a wall above the sea, as the very one. Whether the poet had it in mind or not is a matter for a pleasant argument over a plate of fried fish.
Read the complete Marechiaro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Marechiaro 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 19 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 36 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa dei Misteri. Next is back through Villa dei Papiri.
4. 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 Marechiaro.
5. Marechiaro
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Marechiaro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Marechiaro. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Marechiaro to Villa dei Papiri
Marechiaro → Villa dei Papiri is 19 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 back through Villa dei Papiri
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 Marechiaro
back through Villa dei Papiri → Marechiaro is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.