| Description |
The Volturno (ancient Latin name Volturnus, from volvere, to roll) is a river in south-central Italy. It rises in the Abruzzese central Apennines of Samnium near Rocchetta a Volturno (province of Isernia, Molise) and flows southeast as far as its junction with the Calore River near Caiazzo and runs south as far as Venafro, and then turns southwest, past Capua, to enter the Tyrrhenian Sea in Castel Volturno, northwest of Naples. The river is 175 km long.
After a course of some 120 km it receives, about 8 km east of Caiazzo, the Calore River. The united stream now flows west-southwest past Capua, where the Via Appia and Latina joined just to the north of the bridge over it, and so through the Campanian plain, with many windings, into the sea. The direct length of the lower course is about 50 km, so that the whole is slightly longer than that of the Liri-Garigliano, and its basin far larger. |