Ascending a Stratovolcano

Mount Vesuvius or 'Vesuvio' in Italian is indisputably the most famous conical volcano in the world. A shuttle bus tour to 'Il Cono' - 'the Cone' or the 'Great Cone' is not really adventurous enough for me. I wasn't interested in being bussed up to the top for a quick walk around - this was an opportunity for a proper mountain bike ride.

This is planned leg 1: the Ascension of Vesuvius - departing from Torre del Greco station up through the road route up to the main entrance to the Vesivus National Park and the entrance to the Great Cone. The route is basically as below.

After my preparations in Sorrento I knew where to get my bike from and then I'd roughly mapped out that I'd be able to take the train from Sorrento (where hire was the best deal/availability) and then arrive close to the base of Vesuvio at a station called Torre del Greco before making the ascent. Heres some of the pictures showing the journey up the mountain.

I was greeted by beautiful vistas of the Gulf of Naples and the unique volcanic flora scattering the landscape as I ascended. It's not shown in the photographs but I was surprised at the amount of venues and restaurants scattered along the base of the Volcano - this is supposed to be a dangerous place and you wouldn't have guessed it from the amount of Limoncello Spritzes and Pasta dishes you could have tried on your way up.

Eventually I reached the entrance to the National Park and as expected there's a little tourist gate area where you can go further up to walk the Great Cone.

The path up to the Great Cone is a walking track though so I was more interested in pursuing the bike tracks that go around the Cone and come out on the other side. I was surprised though that there seemed to be a lack of information in this area about the tracks. I had to sort of dig to try and find my way based on my memory of the maps - stay tuned for next time to see how I went.