Cilento Coast

Less known than its closest big city, Naples, the Cilento coast is a,fairly remote part of the Campania region. It is a beautfiful unspoilt area and a good base for exploring other parts of southern Italy. On the map of Italy, Cilento is where the buckle of the boot would be, if there were one. It is a region of woods thick with olives and chestnuts, small villages fringing on the Mediterranean, the smell of wild herbs and jasmine mixing with the smell of the sea. There are medieval hill-top villages like Castellabate and golden beaches plus a wonderfully robust cuisine. This is where the flat bread ‘focaccia’ comes from, along with hearty meat sauces made from mutton and goat. As a matter of fact, Goethe used to travel throughout this fascinating area of Campania, following a land of swamps and the uncontested territory of wild buffalo brought to the region centuries ago, possibly by the Romans. Today the buffalo are still here and their milk is used to make the best mozzarella in Italy. The Cilento area is a good base for those who look for places less trodden, yet within easy reach of places offering a whiff of the wider world of tourism, like Naples and Salerno.