The Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, the second largest Italian national park and World Heritage site, is maintaining unchanged the harmony between nature and thousand years of history and will enchant visitors with its amazing landscapes.
Cilento is a territorial area in the province of Salerno, in southern Campania. Together with the Vallo di Diano, in Roman times Cilento was part of Lucania;
from the Middle Ages onward it belonged to the Principato Citeriore, also called "Western Lucania" but under the city of Salerno.
In ancient times, the Cilento territory was identified among the towns at the foot of Monte Stella (1131 m); this area is referred to as "Cilento antico" and is partially included in the national park.
The name Cilento, from the Latin "cis-Alentum," meaning "on this side of the Alento River" appears as early as 994 A.C. and was given by the Benedictines, who erected churches and monasteries there, which became population centers.
The Cilento was taken over by Prince Guaimarius IV, who was later ousted by Roberto il Guiscardo in 1076. Thus arose the barony of Cilento, which, at the beginning of the 12th century, passed to the Sanseverino family (princes of Salerno), who held Cilento until 1552.
Beginning in the late 1800s the place-name attracted the area of the former barony of Novi (Vallo della Lucania and its neighbors) east of the river. For objective reasons it was intended to extend Cilento to a large part of the southern coastal and inland province of Salerno.
Since 1991, as a result of the establishment of the Parconazio Nale del Cilento e Vallo di Diano, much of Cilento's territory has been protected. Some 181,000 hectares of land, 8 mountain communities and 80 municipalities fall within the protected area. The institutional headquarters of the park authority is located in the most important center of the area, Vallo della Lucania.
Cilento's climate is classified as warm and temperate. Winters are wetter than summers in Cilento. This climate is considered to be Csa according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification.
In August many Cilento villages celebrate Sagras, which are eating festivals where you can try all kinds of typical local dishes. Zeppola/Zeppule are ring doughnuts covered in sugar. Fiorilli/Sciurilli are egg and flour fried courgette flowers. Lagane e Ceci is chickpeas with long flat pasta strips. Mulugnane m'buttunate/ melanzane imbottito is eggplant stuffed with breadcrumbs and flavouring, and pan fried.
When hiking in the Cilento, be aware that there are some natural hazards. There are vipera (Vipers) and cinghiale (Wild Boar). Vipers are poisonous and need to be identified and avoided. They are around two feet long and grey/green in colour. Wild Boar are numerous in the Cilento, and can attack if they are with their young. Wild Boar are nocturnal, and can be seen after sundown.
2nd-order administrative division
Primary administrative division