Why this ride
364 km from Itri to Itri, about 6 h 33 of riding. The stops in between: Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing, Ancient Capua, Historic Centre of Naples and Costiera Amalfitana. Expect gradients and long views.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The Via Appia at the Itri Pass and Costiera Amalfitana
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 364 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 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.
Scenic road chapters
Amalfi Coast Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 61 km this is Amalfi Coast Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 61 km
- Named road
- Amalfi Coast Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. The Via Appia at the Itri Pass
Ancient Rome's first great highway, the Via Appia, was begun in 312 BC by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, and it ran from Rome south to Capua and later on to Brindisi on the Adriatic. At Itri, in the hills behind the Gulf of Gaeta, it squeezes through a narrow pass between the Monti Aurunci and the sea, and the road still crosses the same gap today. A stretch of the old paved line survives near the pass, with its big, rounded basalt blocks, though you will need to get off the main road and look carefully to find it.
Read the complete The Via Appia at the Itri Pass write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Via Appia at the Itri Pass is where the day begins. Next is Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing.
2. Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing
Where the Via Appia crossed the River Garigliano, the Romans built a town, and armies have been fighting over the crossing ever since. Minturnae was founded as a Roman colony in the late fourth century BC on the border between Lazio and Campania, and its ruins lie beside the river near the modern town of Minturno: a theatre still used for summer performances, a forum, temples, baths, a stretch of the Via Appia's paving and the arches of an aqueduct striding across the fields. A small museum displays statues and finds from the site.
Read the complete Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing comes up about 31 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 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Ancient Capua. 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.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Naples write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Historic Centre of Naples, about halfway. Next is Costiera Amalfitana.
5. 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
Costiera Amalfitana sits at 180 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of Naples.
6. back through Historic Centre of Naples
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Naples write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Historic Centre of Naples comes up about 242 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 278 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Ancient Capua. Next is back through Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing.
8. back through Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing, late in the day. Next is The Via Appia at the Itri Pass.
9. The Via Appia at the Itri Pass
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Via Appia at the Itri Pass 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 364 km.
Leg by leg
The Via Appia at the Itri Pass to Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing
The Via Appia at the Itri Pass → Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing to Ancient Capua
Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing → Ancient Capua is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancient Capua to Historic Centre of Naples
Ancient Capua → Historic Centre of Naples is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Naples to Costiera Amalfitana
Historic Centre of Naples → Costiera Amalfitana is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Costiera Amalfitana to back through Historic Centre of Naples
Costiera Amalfitana → back through Historic Centre of Naples is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Naples to back through Ancient Capua
back through Historic Centre of Naples → back through Ancient Capua is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ancient Capua to back through Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing
back through Ancient Capua → back through Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing to The Via Appia at the Itri Pass
back through Minturnae and the Garigliano crossing → The Via Appia at the Itri Pass is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.