Published on: 15 January 2016  | Last updated: 13 January 2020

This tour takes in some of the most glorious stretches of Italy’s coast: starting with the Costiera Amalfitana (Amalfi Coast) and then the Costiera Cilentana part of the Cilento national park. It finishes with a short, but spectacular, section along the coast of Basilicata and into Calabria. 

For much of the way the route follows the roads that were built in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, carved out of the rocky cliff faces, to provide transport links to remote communities that were previ­ously only been reachable by sea.

Along the length of the road are groves of lemon and olive trees, on terraces that go down the cliff face to the edge of the sea. There are also more than 50 defensive watchtowers built to protect the coast against pirate raids.

Map and altitude profile

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Distances
Sorrento to Salerno	76 kms
Salerno to Agropoli	47 kms
Agropoli to Acciaroli	35 kms
Acciaroli to Palinuro	52 kms
Palinuro to Sapri	49 kms
Sapri to Praia a Mare	32 kms
Praia a Mare to Scalea	18 kms

The Nastro Azzurro (Blue Ribband) road between Sorrento and Amalfi is rightly well known as one of Italy’s most scenic coastal roads, but there are long stretches of the rest of the route that are every bit as dramatic, but with less traffic. 

In between the Amalfi and Cilento coasts there are the remains of the Greek city of Paestum, the finest ancient Greek site on mainland Italy, and defin­itely a match for any of the ancient Roman sites.

You can, of course, go south to north, but to my mind, it works best going north-south, as you are riding on the side of the road closest to the sea and with the best views. 

Places along the way

The star of the show is defin­itely the landscape, but never­theless there are plenty of charming and atmospheric places to enjoy. Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi are the best-known destin­a­tions, but there are plenty of other charming and atmospheric places along the way.

Salerno is the largest town along the route (and provincial capital). It has a charming centro storico with some impressive medieval aqueducts. Its archae­olo­gical museum gets good reviews; its star exhibit is a bronze head of Apollo. Salerno was home to Europe’s first medical school (founded in the 9th century), and also the scene of the Allied landing in Italy in September 1943. A critical first step in the liber­ation of the continent it has been overshadowed by the Normandy landings that took place in June 1944.

The remains of the ancient Greek city at Paestum are one of Italy’s best sites from the classical world.

Maratea (not to be confused with Matera) isn’t partic­u­larly well known outside Italy, but for Italians, it’s one of the hottest (or do I mean coolest?) tourist destinations.

Getting there and back

Getting to Sorrento is tricky. It is possible, to ride from Napoli. However, it is tricky to navigate out of the city and then the climb from Vico Equense to Seiano is on a narrow and busy road — defin­itely not the best intro­duction to riding in Italy. I really wouldn’t recommend this if you have only just arrived or if you are an inexper­i­enced rider.

Although I haven’t used this service myself it looks to me that the best option is to take the Alilauro boat service to Sorrento. (Update: thanks to Chris C for getting in touch to confirm that it is indeed a good option). This boat leaves from the Molo Beverello. The service runs every two hours - but note that the service doesn’t run on weekends or holidays. The fare (in 2020) is €13.20 plus 6€ for your bike. For inform­ation on times and fares go to alilauro.it: Napoli-Sorrento timetable and fares. You can also book online, but if you do, don’t forget to print out your ticket.

There is a train station at Sorrento (on the Circumvesuviana line. According to the local cyclists’ organ­isation Spacca Napoli Bike, you can now take bikes on these trains, but this is at the discretion of the capo del treno, and if the train is busy you may not get on. The train to Sorrento also stops at the Pompei archae­olo­gical site, so it’s probably a good idea to time your journey to avoid the rush of tourists heading for Pompei. The Circumvesuviana trains leave from the Porta Nolana and Garibaldi stations and not the main Napoli Centrale station.

The route ends at Scalea where there’s a station (official name: Scalea - Santa Domenica Talao) where you can get a regional train back to Napoli.

Options

I rode this route as part of a longer ride from the border with Lazio south through Napoli and then continuing on to Tropea in Calabria. If you are planning to do this route as part of a longer route, then it’s defin­itely do-able, but you will face a couple of long very dull sections from the border with Lazio to Pozzuoli, north of Napoli, and south from Scalea to Pizzo on the Calabria coast.

For other options in the unspoilt Cilento national park check out the laviasilente.it.

I did this route in two parts, with a tour of Sicilia in the middle - making use of the regular ferry service from Salerno to Palermo in Sicilia operated by Grimaldi Lines.

Articles in this series

• Southern Tyrrhenian Coast overview
• Southern Tyrrhenian Coast Part: 1: the Costiera Amalfitana from Sorrento to Salerno
• Southern Tyrrhenian Coast: Part 2: the Costiera Cilentana from Salerno to Acciaroli
• Southern Tyrrhenian Coast: Part 3: The Costiera Cilentana from Acciaroli to Sapri
• Southern Tyrrhenian Coast: Part 4: Basilicata and Calabria from Sapri to Scalea