Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park

Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park, Italy

Golden hour light over the hill village of Castellabate and the Cilento coastline.

Cilento is southern Italy's quieter side: Greek temples, limestone caves, hill villages and unspoilt coves, far from the Amalfi Coast crowds.

The place

Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park fills a large part of the province of Salerno, in Campania, well south of the Amalfi Coast's tour-bus circuit. It joins three quite different landscapes. The Cilento coast is a run of cliffs, pebble coves and headlands facing the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Vallo di Diano is a wide, flat valley of farmland that runs inland between mountain ranges. The Alburni are a limestone massif of beech woods, rock walls and sinkholes. Because the rock is karst, water vanishes underground and re-emerges in caves, including the sea caves around Marina di Camerota and the inland caverns near Castelcivita. This is not an empty wilderness. Dozens of small municipalities lie within the boundary, so the park is a patchwork of hill villages, olive terraces, fishing harbours and farms, joined by walking paths. The park authority has its offices in Vallo della Lucania, and its website, http://www.cilentoediano.it, is the place to check trails, visitor centres and closures. Agropoli, with its old quarter on a promontory, is the usual base for the coast, while Castellabate and Palinuro suit longer beach stays. Summer, and August in particular, is hot and busy on the sand as Italian families arrive, while the high interior stays calmer and cooler. Public transport thins out quickly away from the coast, so most people who want the villages hire a car.

Its story

Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park was created in 1991 with a protective purpose: to keep unplanned building and mass tourism from remaking a coast and hill country that had so far escaped both. It began life under a shorter name, before the Alburni were named in the title. In 1998 the area was inscribed as a World Heritage Site, together with the Greek-founded towns of Paestum and Velia and the Padula Charterhouse, a monastery in the Vallo di Diano. Those places show how long people have valued this land. Paestum began as a Greek colony in the sixth century BCE, and its temples still stand among fields. Velia, known in antiquity as Elea, is remembered as the home of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno. Palinuro carries a legend from Virgil: Aeneas's helmsman, Palinurus, dozed off, fell into the sea near this headland and left it his name. Inside the park, smaller reserves add another layer of protection, among them the Foce Sele-Tanagro reserve, which includes the Persano oasis, and the Punta Licosa marine reserve off Castellabate. Beneath all of it lies limestone, the slow architect of the caves, the sheer inland ridges and the clear water along the shore. The story here is of old settlement, steep terrain and a deliberate decision to leave much of it unbuilt.

What to see

Culture

Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park is a place where daily life still follows village rhythms: coffee at the bar in the morning, a long lunch, shops shuttered through the afternoon and a slow evening stroll around the square. Many households keep olive trees and a vegetable plot, and talk about food is never far away. Catholic patron-saint feasts bring processions, brass bands and fireworks to even the smallest hill village, and in August the sagre, local food festivals, draw residents and relatives who have moved away. Greek and Roman ruins sit close to the working landscape, so ancient history feels less like a museum and more like part of the neighbourhood. English is spoken in the coastal resorts but far less in the interior, where a few words of Italian, a greeting on entering a shop and patience over opening hours go a long way. Visitors who arrive expecting a polished resort scene find something plainer and more local, and that is much of the appeal. Cover shoulders and knees before stepping into a village church, and step quietly aside if a service or procession is under way.

What to wear

Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park has no single costume known across the region, and traditional dress is now mostly seen at festivals and in folk groups. Older rural clothing in southern Italy was made from wool, linen and hemp: long pleated skirts, laced bodices and headcloths for women, and waistcoats, breeches and caps for men. These are brought out for patron-saint days and heritage events, not for daily wear. Today people dress casually and practically. On the coast that means linen shirts, shorts, sundresses and sandals, with something smarter for an evening on the seafront. In the hill villages, older residents tend toward darker, more covered clothes, and a tidy appearance is appreciated. Visitors should pack for sun first: a hat, sunglasses and light, breathable layers. For walking, wear sturdy shoes with grip, since limestone paths are stony and slippery, and long trousers are sensible where vipers or thick undergrowth are possible. Bring a warmer layer for the Alburni, which are cooler than the shore, and for caves. Rocky coves are easier in swim shoes. For churches, carry a scarf or shirt to cover shoulders, and avoid beachwear away from the sand.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. May–June and September–October, when the coast is warm enough for swimming and the trails are comfortable. July and especially August are hot and crowded on the beaches, and inland villages can be very quiet in winter.

How long. 4–5

Getting there. Fly to Naples, then take a train towards Salerno and onward on regional services to Paestum or Agropoli. For the villages, caves and mountains, the last leg is easiest by hire car, as buses are infrequent.

Budget. mid

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources