Why this ride
A 270 km round trip from Ercolano - roughly 5 h 02 in the saddle. The stops in between: Costiera Amalfitana, Torre Annunziata: Villa B, back through Torre Annunziata: Villa B and back through Costiera Amalfitana.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa dei Papiri and Costiera Amalfitana
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 270 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 02
- 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 53 km this is Amalfi Coast Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 53 km
- Named road
- Amalfi Coast Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Villa dei Papiri
The Villa of the Papyri is mostly still buried. It was a huge seaside villa at Herculaneum, on the slope below Vesuvius, and when the eruption of 79 AD sent a mud and ash flow down on the town, the villa was covered by twenty metres of hard volcanic rock. In the 1750s, the Bourbon engineers who were digging in the area tunnelled down and found marble statues, bronzes of rare quality and a library of around 1,800 papyrus scrolls, charred into black lumps by the heat. The scrolls, many of them works by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, have been read in recent years using X-ray imaging and artificial intelligence. The villa may have belonged to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Piso, though this is a guess. The villa in Malibu that houses the Getty Museum is a copy of it.
Read the complete Villa dei Papiri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa dei Papiri is where the day begins. Next is Costiera Amalfitana.
2. 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 comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is Torre Annunziata: Villa B.
3. Torre Annunziata: Villa B
Under the shadow of Vesuvius, in the middle of a modern working town, there is a Roman villa that was buried in the same eruption of AD 79 that destroyed Pompeii. Torre Annunziata stands on the ancient site of Oplontis, a seaside suburb of Pompeii, and its two excavated villas are part of the UNESCO listing of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata, inscribed in 1997. Villa A, the grander one, is famous for its frescoes and is linked with Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Nero. Villa B, the one on this ride, is different, a commercial building where wine and other goods were stored and traded, with a large courtyard and many amphorae found when it was dug up.
Read the complete Torre Annunziata: Villa B write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Torre Annunziata: Villa B.
4. Costiera Amalfitana
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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, about halfway. Next is back through Torre Annunziata: Villa B.
5. back through Torre Annunziata: Villa B
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Torre Annunziata: Villa B write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Torre Annunziata: Villa B sits at 119 km, about halfway. Next is back through Costiera Amalfitana.
6. back through Costiera Amalfitana
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Costiera Amalfitana comes up about 215 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa dei Papiri.
7. Villa dei Papiri
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa dei Papiri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa dei Papiri closes the day.
Leg by leg
Villa dei Papiri to Costiera Amalfitana
Villa dei Papiri → Costiera Amalfitana is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Costiera Amalfitana to Torre Annunziata: Villa B
Costiera Amalfitana → Torre Annunziata: Villa B is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Torre Annunziata: Villa B to Costiera Amalfitana
Torre Annunziata: Villa B → Costiera Amalfitana is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Costiera Amalfitana to back through Torre Annunziata: Villa B
Costiera Amalfitana → back through Torre Annunziata: Villa B is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Torre Annunziata: Villa B to back through Costiera Amalfitana
back through Torre Annunziata: Villa B → back through Costiera Amalfitana is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Costiera Amalfitana to Villa dei Papiri
back through Costiera Amalfitana → Villa dei Papiri is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.