CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
248 km from San Giorgio del Sannio to San Giorgio del Sannio, about 5 h 43 of riding. It goes by way of The Santa Sofia complex, The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu, Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan and 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with.
The ride follows Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan → 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caser for 51 km.
East of Benevento, the Via Appia leaves the Calore valley and heads into the green, rolling hills of Irpinia on its long way to Brindisi, and near Venticano and Pietradefusi you are travelling over one of its quieter stretches. The road the Romans laid here is mostly lost under fields and later tracks, but the line still guides the landscape, and a short way south-east lie the remains of Aeclanum, near Mirabella Eclano, a Roman town that grew rich on the traffic. Benevento itself was the great junction: from here the original Appia ran over the hills to Venusia and Tarentum, while the Emperor Trajan built a faster route, the Via Traiana, through the plains of Apulia. His triumphal arch, raised in AD 114, still stands in Benevento, its reliefs remarkably sharp.
Read the complete The Via Appia on the route from Beneventum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Via Appia on the route from Beneventum is where the day begins. Next is The Santa Sofia complex.
Benevento has been a crossroads for about as long as there has been a road to cross, but the Santa Sofia complex belongs to a particular chapter, the Lombards. In the eighth century the duchy of Benevento was the last Lombard power in southern Italy, and Duke Arechis II built Santa Sofia as his palace church, around the 760s. It is a strange, beautiful building, a hexagon surrounded by a ring of columns and walls, with an odd star-like plan that has puzzled architects ever since. Inside the plain stone are traces of frescoes, and the later Romanesque cloister next door is a lovely quiet square. It is part of the UNESCO listing for the Longobards in Italy, which came in 2011.
Read the complete The Santa Sofia complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Santa Sofia complex comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Read the complete The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 44 km into the recorded legs you reach The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu. Next is Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan.
Benevento was a Samnite town called Maleventum when the Romans arrived, and they reportedly changed its name to Beneventum, good event instead of bad event, after defeating King Pyrrhus nearby in 275 BC. The city became an important stop on the Via Appia, and later the starting point of the Via Traiana, a shorter route to Brindisi built by the Emperor Trajan. In 114 AD, the city erected a triumphal arch in his honour where the new road began, and it is one of the best preserved Roman arches anywhere, covered with reliefs celebrating Trajan's achievements, from his conquests to his care for the poor. It stands today at the edge of the old town, its marble a soft cream colour, its carvings still sharp.
Read the complete Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan, about halfway. Next is 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.
Read the complete 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with sits at 118 km, about halfway. Next is back through Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan comes up about 175 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 201 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu. Next is back through The Santa Sofia complex.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Santa Sofia complex write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Santa Sofia complex, late in the day. Next is The Via Appia on the route from Beneventum.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Via Appia on the route from Beneventum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 248 km.
The Via Appia on the route from Beneventum → The Santa Sofia complex is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Santa Sofia complex → The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu → Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan → 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with → back through Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beneventum and the Arch of Trajan → back through The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Appia Traiana from Beneventum to Aequu → back through The Santa Sofia complex is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Santa Sofia complex → The Via Appia on the route from Beneventum is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.