Why this ride
A 335 km round trip from Pompei - roughly 6 h 22 in the saddle. It goes by way of Marechiaro, Ancient Capua, The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S and The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Pompeii and The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 335 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 22
- 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. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Marechiaro.
2. 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 comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ancient Capua.
3. Ancient Capua
Santa Maria Capua Vetere does not look like much as you ride in, a busy Campanian town of tangled traffic and apartment blocks, but under and around it lies ancient Capua, once one of the richest cities in Italy. The Via Appia passed straight through, and its great amphitheatre, second in size only to the Colosseum, still dominates the edge of town. This was where the gladiator schools trained their fighters, and it was from a school in Capua that Spartacus broke out in 73 BC with a band of fellow slaves, beginning the revolt that shook Rome for two years. The amphitheatre and a small gladiator museum nearby are the obvious stops, and the Mithraeum under the town, with its painted scene of the god slaying a bull, is one of the best preserved in Italy.
Read the complete Ancient Capua write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 85 km into the recorded legs you reach Ancient Capua. Next is The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S.
4. The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S
The Via Appia, the Queen of Roads, ran from Rome to Brindisi, and in 2024 UNESCO inscribed long stretches of it as a single World Heritage site. Near Mondragone, on the coast of northern Campania, the road passes the site of Sinuessa, a Roman colony that once guarded the route where it reached the sea after crossing the coastal plains from the north. Not a great deal stands above ground today, so this is a place where you read the landscape rather than tour the ruins.
Read the complete The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S, about halfway. Next is The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae.
5. The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae
The queen of roads, the Romans called it: the Via Appia, begun in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, ran from Rome to Capua and later on to Brindisi, the gateway to Greece and the East. Near Formia, the old road comes down from the hills of Itri to the coast of the Gulf of Gaeta, and a stretch of it, with its paving stones and roadside monuments, survives in the countryside. In 2024, UNESCO listed the Via Appia as a whole, and this section between the eighty-third mile from Rome and the ancient town of Formiae is one of its pieces.
Read the complete The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae sits at 158 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S.
6. back through The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S comes up about 199 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Ancient Capua.
7. back through Ancient Capua
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancient Capua write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 249 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Ancient Capua. Next is back through Marechiaro.
8. back through 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 through Marechiaro, late in the day. Next is Pompeii.
9. 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
The route ends here after 335 km.
Leg by leg
Pompeii to Marechiaro
Pompeii → Marechiaro is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Marechiaro to Ancient Capua
Marechiaro → Ancient Capua is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancient Capua to The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S
Ancient Capua → The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S to The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae
The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S → The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae to back through The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S
The Via Appia from 83rd mile to Formiae → back through The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S to back through Ancient Capua
back through The Via Appia from Sinuessa to the Pagus S → back through Ancient Capua is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ancient Capua to back through Marechiaro
back through Ancient Capua → back through Marechiaro is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Marechiaro to Pompeii
back through Marechiaro → Pompeii is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.