Greetings from Pisciotta

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We left our posh hotel in Telese Terme at 06;00 this morning, yes a rather late start but we felt we deserved it.

We peddled down towards the plain of Naples through wonderful countryside and thick fog. As we rounded one corner at Ponte Della Valle. a huge aqueduct loomed up out of the mist. Although looking distinctly Roman, it was in fact built by order of Charles III of Naples to convey the water of the Tiburno to Caserta across the valley between Monte Longano and Monte Gargano.

We were soon riding through the grey industrial landscape that surrounds Naples; a maze of narrow roads and railways servicing factories and the endless industrial zones. At one closed level crossing, we found ourselves waiting behind a dustcart and on discovering we were ‘Inglese’ the guys dismounted and took it upon themselves to perform a small dance for us before continuing with their business of the day.

The only factor that seemed to improve a morning of service roads and industrial car parks was that with typical Italian flourish, there seemed to be an exquisite flower stall next to every factory.

Towards midday we began to escape Italian industry as we headed towards the port of Salerno. This was one of the hotter days and with the thermometer climbing towards 30 degrees we stopped at a petrol station to get a snack and fill our water bottles. It seems the arrival of a group of aging English cyclists was the most exciting thing to happen there for some time as we were given an extremely warm welcome from it has to be said, the rather attractive staff.

Overlooking the port of Salerno

Why are they phoning Ahead?

We were soon on the outskirts of Salerno and it was great to get to the Sea. Picking our way through the complex one-way systems and hysterically busy traffic was fun but as ever, took too much time. This, added to a stop at a bike shop for emergency repairs and the ceremonial pumping up of tyres meant it was early afternoon before we were heading south, away from Salerno on the long flat coast road.


This is a slightly weird empty sort of area characterised by dilapidated and mostly closed restaurants. A rather dull stretch of road only made more interesting by a succession of ladies of ‘easy virtue’ sitting casually by the roadside every few hundred yards. As we rode past they eyed us suspiciously and whispered into their mobile phones causing Chris to mutter under his breath “I’m worried, I think they’re phoning ahead”. What they might have been phoning ahead about Chris was less sure but by the time we stopped near the beach for lunch, he had become convinced that every undesirable within a 20 mile radius had been contacted and would soon be robbing us blind. In reality, the most interesting thing that happened was that I fell off my bike on the sand before being provided with a nice plate of spaghetti by a large, elderly Italian woman who seemed more that capable of sorting out any trouble.

Ready for lunch

At Agropoli we left the coast and headed off back up into the hills before finding the coast road once again which tracked along the rocky coastline on what was turning out to be a really lovely evening.

As ever we arrived at our destination after eight o’clock. The lovely hill top, medieval village of Pisciotta. The Marulivo hotel is a wonderful little town house hotel created from an ancient building with delightful bedrooms and wonderful views of the countryside, olive groves and the sea. Dinner that evening was at a local restaurant where fish seemed to be the order of business. A really great day although my fatigue is still lurking and when my head hit the pillow, I went out like a light!  

Todays stats


Miles 132
Average speed 13.4
Calories 5,700
Climb 4,600 ft


Here's the link to the GPX file for the day's planned route