NAPLES & BEYOND A journey into the unknown South of the coast is the , an almost touristfree area whose hinterland is a national park where wolves patrol the mountain passes and olive trees grow 15 metres high. Even the coastline is quiet and pleasant. Report by Lee Marshall. Photographs by Ernst Fischer

HE TEMPLES AT , 40km from the Amalfi coast, are the southernmost point on the standard tourist map of . Beyond lies the uncharted territory of the Cilento. Like many such regions, it has its difficulties, its disappointments, its drab hotels. But the highlights are very high indeed and they come laced with the thrill of discovery. The last people to invade the Cilento (pronounced 'chilento') in significant numbers were the Saracens in the 10th century Like today's predominantly Italian tourists, they stuck to the coast. The fertile but inaccessible hinterland was left to its own devices -so much so that it has become a model of genetic purity. Nine Cilento villages are at the centre of a 'genetic park', coordinated by the University of , which aims to learn more about hereditary diseases by studying the gene pools of communities that have descended from a relatively small number of individuals. The southern Italian tendency to fill unspoiled valleys and sweeping dunescapes with concrete has done damage to some parts of the Cilento: so the institution, in 1991, of the Parco Nazionale del Cilento e came not a moment too soon. especially as it was another five years until the park existed on anything but paper. After a pitched battle to stop the building of a road between the Marina di and . the fight for the Cilento has been won. Otters still fish in some stretches of the Calore River, carob trees dangle their pods along the rocky coast and wolves stilt patrol the high mountain passes. I even saw a hoopoe, that most unpronounceable of birds, rooting in a grove of giant Pisciottana olives. When the wind gets up. these huge trees (some more than 15 metres tall) shake their silvergreen locks like an arboreal Banquo. The first part of the coast between and pushes out into the . echoing the thrust of the Amalfi peninsula to the

96 Condé Nast Traveler The Best of Italy north. The resorts along the 135km stretch are Upper row, left to right: Locanda delle Donne Monache in smallscale, without the facilities of Amalfi. Maratea; Marina di Maratea; Palazzo Belmonte hotel; grotto or Capri. The upside, though, is a genuine welcome near ; forest; San Marco di Castellabate; Lower row: and eagerness to please that has been lost in the tourist pool at Locanda delle Donne Monache; , inland from shops of the Bay of Naples. This was brought home to Palinuro; Il Coniglio island off Palinuro; Palazzo Belmonte; me with some force at Maratea train station, where a coast near Palinuro; Sant'Agata, above Palinuro chiselled, grey-dusted ticket-office assistant spent a good 15 minutes finding me a seat at the end of a busy Easter weekend. It was a personal challenge, he worth stopping to get a boat along the coast to Cala explained, to the people behind me in the queue. degli Infreschi, an idyllic pirates' cove of a beach, with makes an obvious stopover between water a shade of bluegreen that you thought existed Castellabate and Maratea. Ignore the other sleeve-tug- only on celluloid. Around on the other side of the gers: must have been prettier (one hopes) Golfo di Policastro, the medieval village of Maratea is when Hemingway hung out here. Palinuro sounds a the only place between Amalfi and Taormina to have lot better than it looks, and although the approach to real style, and the facilities to indulge it. So far - along a wide beach at the foot of discovered mainly by Italian tourists, Maratea is a tiny dramatic, caveriddled red cliffs - is spectacular, the cluster of houses, with one main strolling street and town itself is an apologetic, slapdash jumble. But it's more churches than bars. The rocky coast

98 Condé Nast Traveler The Best of Italy below it, pitted with grey-sand beaches, is where most of CILENTO: A USER’S GUIDE the hotels are situated; but if you can, stay at the Locanda delle Donne Monache, a converted early-18th-century British Airways (0870 850 Nazionale del Cilento, nunnery in the old centre. 9850, www.ba.com) flies visit www. pncvd.it from Gatwick to Napes from CASTELLABATE I stopped off at the Certosa di on the way back £138 return. north. On the edge of the Cilento National Park, this is one AND ROUND Easy Jet (0905 821 0905, Santa Maria di Castella- of southern Italy's most imposing monasteries, with a grid www.easyjet.com) flies bate s a small beach resort plan echoed by El Escorial in Spain (also built in honour from Stansted from £59 with a few charming old of St Lawrence, who was roasted to death on a griddle). In return. Europcar (0870 607 buildings, many more new the very heart of the park is the village of - 5000, www. europcar.co.uk) ones, and plenty of sharp Vecchio. After a landslide in the first decade of the 20th has an office at Naples bartlies in fake designer century, most of the population of the village left for airport. shades. Not the sort of Roscigno-Nuovo, which was being built on a nearby hill. A four-door car costs from place where you expect to £178 per week. Most hotels find a stately home with By the 1960s only one stubborn old woman was left. Now in the Cilento do not open she has died, and the village has been turned into a extensive grounds: but unti Easter and are closed Palazzo Belmonte (00 39 modern archaeological site, advertising itself as 'The again by mid-October. For 0974 960211: Pompeii of the 20th Century'. information on the Parco www.palazzobelmonte.it: NAPLES & BEYOND

unremarkable but filling pushes the nunnish country food. For more parallels, with scraped spectacular views, head and sponged pastel walls for the King's Residence and post medieval Hotel (Baia del details: but the delightful €€ Buondormire; 00 39 0974 swimming pool and 931324, www.hotel restaurant terrace are tar kings.it: doubles from from convent-like. Nestling €114) which sits above a in the pine and olive rocky cove on the groves above the bay of unspoiled southern side Fi umice llo, the Santave- of the Palinuro headland. nere Hotel (00 39 0973 On my visit it had the 876910; doubles from rather impersona feel of a €275) s a light and highclass 1970s package plantfilled retreat: there hotel, but it has since are bars both by the been refurb ished and in swimming pool and on any case, the swimming the rocky private beach. doubles from €195; set amid a rot of lemon, pool, private beach and For charm on a budget, minimum twonight stay), fig. eucalyptus and beauty centre are three backtrack along the cliff which perches above its mimosa trees. Home-made good reasons to stay. road to the tiny bay of own private section of breakfasts merge into Acquafredda. where the beach, is just that. Part of lunch, lunch into aperitivo, MARATEA Villa Cheta Elite (via the complex, built n the aperitivo into a sumptu- AND AROUND Timpone 46; 00390973 17th century as a hunting ous dinner, If you can tear The first port of call in the 878134, couples from lodge, is occupied by the yourself away from the Gulf of Policastro is the €170 halfboard) occup current Principe di hotel, the Taverna del pretty fishing village of ies a Liberty-style (Italian Belmonte. The palazzo's Pescatore (va Lamia; 00 , which in U'Zifaro Art Nouveau) villa in aristocratic charm draws 39 0974 968293: about (Lungomare 43: 00 39 pleasant, bougainvillaea- a mainly British clientele. €70 for two without wine, 0974 986397 about €50 shaded gardens just The main palazzo houses closed Mon) in Santa for two without wine) has above the coast road. The guest rooms ranging from Maria di Castellabate one of the best seafood restaurant, which features the elegant to the rustic; does excellent, creative restaurants along this, or gourmet dishes such as two new garden villas are seafood: try the spaghetti indeed any other stretch swordfish and chickpea divided into suites. Old ai ricci di mare a crudo of coast. In a former soup, is good enough to Castel labate sits above (spaghetti with raw sea boathouse on the pull in outsiders In the od the bay, and a private urchins). The inexpensive esplanade, it offers a town of Maratea, the house on the edge of the wine list 5 strong on local range of cheap, excellent Taverna Rovita (via medieval town has been producers such as Luigi dishes such as spaghetti Rovita 131; 00 39 0973 turned into a good value Maffini. di mare alla putanesca 876588; about €70 for hotel with lust five (with seafood, tomatoes two without wine: closed bedrooms: La Mola (via PALINURO and capers) and good Tues) s a characterful, Adolfo Cilento 2: 00 39 AND AROUND grilledfish secondi. After longestablished 0974 967053; The coast between Castel lunch, ignore anonymous, restaurant serving www.lamolait.com; labate and Marina di over developed Sapri and Lucanian specialities that doubles from €104). Camerota offers thin head straight for Maratea. look to the and (stuffed Whitewashed rooms with pickings for the more Style-conscious Italians peppers game birds, oca iron bedsteads look onto demanding traveller. who have discovered this salami) as well as the sea. a flower-decked terrace Acciaroli and quietly chichi resort tend Finish n style with a with panoramic views are smallscale family to lodge n one of two cessata Lucana, a lighter, where meals are served. resorts with facilities to sister hotels. Up in the spongier version of the For one of the warmest match: Palinuro is a medieval village, the Sicilian ricotta and marzi- welcomes on the Cilento larger version of the Locanda delle Donne pan pudding. Down in the coast, head for San same. Above Palinuro, Monache (via Carlo port of Marina di Maratea, Marco di Castellabate, amid olive groves, s a Mazze 4; 00 39 0973 Zà Mariuccia (via Grotte where Giacaranda small agriturismo, 877487, 2; 00 39 0973 876163: (contrada Cenito; 00 39 Sant'Agata (contrada www.mondomaratea.it; about €90 for two without 0974 966130: Sant'Agata; 00 39 0974 doubles from €120) is wine, open from April to www.giacaranda.it; 931716; doubles from housed in a tastefully October closed Thurs) doubles from €80 €86 hatboard), offering restored 18th-century offers reliable, reasonably halfboard) s a white villa good sea views and convent. The decor priced seafood dishes.