Over 100 kilometres of unspoilt coastline!
The Cilento is one of the most magical and evocative places in Campania. It stretches from Paestum, famous for its impressive Archaeological Park, to the Gulf of Policastro. A myriad of colourful villages, guardians of ancient popular traditions, enliven this area, such as Agropoli, Palinuro, Camerota, Sapri, Ascea and Santa Maria di Castellabate. Its beaches are of enchanting beauty, often awarded with Blue Flags and Legambiente Sails: shores of fine golden sand alternate with stretches of more rocky and indented coastline, rich in inlets, prehistoric caves and watchtowers waiting to be discovered!
It is also home to Italy’s second largest park. Included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1998, together with the Certosa di Padula and the archaeological area of Paestum, the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park encompasses the Bulgheria and Stella Mountains, and the peaks of Gelbison, Alburni and Cervati. Over 1800 species of wild plants populate this area, in the company of a heterogeneous yet harmonious fauna. We find, in fact, the splendid golden eagle, the wolf, the hare and the partridge. The cultural symbol of the Cilento is certainly Velia, from the ancient Greek Elea, a very important centre of Magna Graecia founded in the 6th century B.C. together with the Eleatic school of philosophy, whose leading exponents were Zeno and Parmenides. Here you can visit, among other monuments, the Porta Rosa, which served as a link between the two quarters of the town.
But this land is also famous for the exceptional quality of its gastronomic products. It was here, in fact, that the Mediterranean diet was born, studied by Ancel Keys, the American physiologist and biologist who first discovered and documented the benefits of a diet based on pasta, bread, fresh fish, vegetables, pulses and olive oil.