An ancient land, the Cilento is a treasure chest of places to visit and experience, as a couple or with the family.
Sea lovers will find clear, clean water along a coast whose towns have over the years earned Blue Flags and Legambiente “Sails”. The coast runs from Agropoli to Sapri, alternating stretches reachable only by sea with easy sandy beaches.
From the old town of Agropoli you pass Santa Maria di Castellabate, Ascea, Pioppi and Acciaroli, not forgetting Punta Licosa, one of Italy’s first marine parks, loved by divers and nature lovers. All the way to Palinuro, the Cilento’s best-known seaside resort, with its sea caves: the most visited is the Blue Grotto.
An unspoilt natural landscape of hills, rivers and paths: ideal for walking and trekking. The Cilento National Park is also a place for caving, with the Castelcivita Caves and the Angel Caves at Pertosa and their striking stalactites and stalagmites.
Then there is history and art: alongside Paestum, the excavations of Velia with its Porta Rosa and those of ancient Volcei at Buccino. And the Certosa di San Lorenzo at Padula, the largest monastic complex in southern Italy, open all year round.
“Qui non si muore” (“nobody dies here”) is what Joachim Murat, King of Naples, said in 1811 from the San Costabile lookout while visiting the medieval village: he fell in love with its scenery and healthy air. Poised between mountains and sea, the village wraps around the Abbot’s Castle that gives it its name.
In the heart of the ancient Cilento, with its old centre gathered around the little square and countryside rich in plants and wildlife. Look out for the noble palazzi with carved stone doorways: the Vargas-Machuca castle, Palazzo Giardulli with its olive press, the baronial Palazzo Gagliardi and the sixteenth-century fountain.
A mountain-to-sea route along one of the loveliest stretches of the coast, between the port of San Marco and Ogliastro Marina, in the municipality of Castellabate. The islet 300 metres offshore is linked to the myth of the siren Leucosia: Mediterranean scrub and a sea of shifting colours. Easy beaches nearby: Pozzillo and San Marco, Punta Inferno, Baia Ogliastro, Baia Arena.
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