Villa dei Misteri and District of Casale and Santo Strato

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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

   Villa dei Misteri is where the day begins. Next is Herculaneum.

2. 2. Herculaneum

   On the morning of 24 August in AD 79, as the story is usually told, Vesuvius blew its top, and Herculaneum, a small seaside town on the Bay of Naples, was buried under around twenty metres of volcanic material. Pompeii gets the headlines because it was buried in ash and pumice, but Herculaneum was overwhelmed by superheated surges of gas and ash, and that violence did something kinder to the evidence: it carbonised wood. Roof beams, doors, beds, shop shutters and even food were preserved in a way that Pompeii cannot match, and the town feels smaller, closer and more intact.

   Read the complete Herculaneum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Herculaneum comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is District of Casale and Santo Strato.

3. 3. District of Casale and Santo Strato

   Posillipo takes its name from a Greek phrase meaning a pause from pain, and the Romans, who knew a good view when they saw one, covered the ridge with villas. It is the green promontory that divides the Bay of Naples from the Gulf of Pozzuoli, a hill of soft yellow tuff thrown up by the volcanoes of the Phlegraean Fields, and its western slope falls into the sea in cliffs and small coves. The Casale and Santo Strato district sits on the sea side of the hill, where terraced gardens, old walls and tiny ports survived the building boom that swallowed so much of Naples.

   Read the complete District of Casale and Santo Strato write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 35 km into the recorded legs you reach District of Casale and Santo Strato. Next is back through Herculaneum.

4. 4. back through Herculaneum

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Herculaneum write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Herculaneum, late in the day. Next is Villa dei Misteri.

5. 5. Villa dei Misteri

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   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

   Back at Villa dei Misteri. That is the ride.