The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia and Historic Centre of Naples
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
365 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 53
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.
A 365 km round trip from Castelluccio dei Sauri - roughly 6 h 53 in the saddle. The stops in between: The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu, 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with, Historic Centre of Naples and back through 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Scenic road chapters
The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu → 18th-Century Royal Palace
The ride follows The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu → 18th-Century Royal Palace for 102 km.
Chapter facts
Length
102 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia
There is nothing here that announces itself. What you have is a long, almost featureless landscape of grain, stubble and the odd masseria, and under it the line of a Roman road. The Via Traiana was commissioned by the emperor Trajan around 109 AD as a faster, drier alternative to the old Appia between Benevento and Brindisi, and the stretch from Aecae to Herdonia is one of the places where you can follow its logic: flat, direct, and aimed at the next town.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia is where the day begins. Next is The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu.
2. The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu
Trajan was an emperor who liked roads, and in about AD 109 he opened a new one to shorten the journey from Rome to Brindisi, the port for Greece and the East. The old Via Appia went the long way round, down through the marshes and the coast, and the Via Traiana cut inland from Benevento through the hills of Irpinia and across the Apulian plain. This section, from Beneventum toward the old stop of Aequum Tuticum near modern Ariano Irpino, crosses a country of rolling grain fields, hill villages and wind turbines turning on the ridges.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with.
3. 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with
When Charles of Bourbon, king of Naples, decided to build a royal palace to rival Versailles, he did not do things by halves. The Reggia di Caserta, begun in 1752 to a design by Luigi Vanvitelli, is one of the largest royal palaces in the world, with some twelve hundred rooms, four inner courtyards, a theatre and a grand staircase that has appeared in films including Star Wars, where it stood in for the palace of Naboo. Behind it, a park stretches for three kilometres up the hillside, with fountains, statues and a long chain of pools and cascades fed by an aqueduct that Vanvitelli built specially, ending at a great waterfall at the top.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 163 km into the recorded legs you reach 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with. Next is Historic Centre of Naples.
4. Historic Centre of Naples
Naples is not a city you ride through so much as one you survive and then fall in love with. The historic centre, a UNESCO site since 1995, sits on the street plan of Neapolis, the Greek new city founded around the sixth century BC, and the three ancient decumani still run straight through it, the most famous being Spaccanapoli, the street that splits Naples in two. Along them, churches, palaces, shrines, workshops and laundry-hung alleys are packed together with an intensity found nowhere else in Europe.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu comes up about 305 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia closes the day.
Leg by leg
The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia to The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu
The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia → The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu to 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with
The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu → 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with is 102 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with to Historic Centre of Naples
18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with → Historic Centre of Naples is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Naples to back through 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with
Historic Centre of Naples → back through 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with to back through The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu
back through 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with → back through The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu to The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia
back through The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu → The Appia Traiana from Aecae to Herdonia is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.