It is a country of contrasts and incomparable beauty, with its enchanting wall coast in front of the uncontaminated sea, the sweet beaches, the little medieval burgs and the sunny landscapes. This coast is one of the most wonderful ones in all Italy, with one hundred km beaches, sweet small bays and mysterious grottos. The coast of Cilento begins in Paestum and ends in Sapri. Its many-sided tourist offer is very rich and absolutely far from the full cities and the daily stress.
The Cilento, also said Western Lucania, is a subregion of the mountainous province of Salerno, which juts out like a peninsula between the gulfs of Salerno and Policastro, in the southern region, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Until the creation of the National Park of Cilento and Vallo di Diano the Cilento area was identified among the countries at the foot of Monte Stella (1,131 m), and others bounded east by the River Alento. For objective reasons we wanted to extend the Cilento to much of the interior and southern coastal province of Salerno. Cilento was formerly part of Lucania (along with the Vallo di Diano and the Gulf of Policastro). It has been a sign in dialect, traditions and food in place names (Vallo della Lucania Lucania Athena).
The Cilento for millennia has inspired poets and singers. Many of the Greek and Roman myths that are the foundation of our Western culture, were ambientati on its shores. The most famous myth is that the island of the sirens in the Odyssey. Those evil creatures that, according to Homer, radiating a song that was crazy sailors passing by, causing them to crash into the boat on the rocks. The island that inspired the ancient Singer is probably the one in front of Punta Licosa, south near Castellabate. Faced with its sea Odysseus had himself tied to the tree as a teacher to listen quell'ingannevole hand. Another myth is important to Palinuro, helmsman of Aeneas.
During the journey to the coast of Lazio fell into the sea along with the rudder. He clung to the wreck for three days and hired a grueling fight against the raging waves. But when he was finally going to get safely to shore, was brutally killed by the inhabitants of those places since then, this hill (where lies the village of Palinuro) took the name of Cape Palinuro. Another myth is that of Jason and the Argonauts who once fled from Colchis, to appease the goddess was stopped at the sanctuary at the mouth of the river Sele.