Cilento National Park – Part 1

The Long Way Round

We escaped!! As lucky as we are to live where we do, like anywhere else in the world at the moment, it’s easy for cabin fever to set in and a need for a change of scenery becomes more and more important. Something, I’m sure many of us won’t take for granted again.

So we loaded the newly revamped campervan and headed South for the week. Being in ‘Yellow Zone’ meant the restrictions confined us to our region, Campania. A region that is twice the size of Lincolnshire, contains the Amalfi coast, Vesuvius, Naples and an area to the South called the Cilento National Park. It wasn’t exactly hard to find somewhere to go! Before moving to Italy, I hadn’t heard of Cilento; I couldn’t have told you it was a National Park in Italy, in fact if you asked me to guess what it was, I’d have said the American word for Coriander! I don’t think I’m alone there either, the tourist hotspots of Amalfi, Sorrento, Puglia and Cinque Terre get much more attention than this 1,800km squared area of outstanding natural beauty. In fact, I was in two minds over whether to write this post as it’s very tempting to keep it to ourselves! (I then came to my senses and realised the handful of readers won’t make too much of a difference!)

Our holiday started with a night in Paestum, at the same campsite we stayed at before (to read about that trip click here). However, there were some vast differences, this time we were one of about five vehicles instead of eighty five (!) and the temperature was about 25 degrees colder! We had some freak cold weather which meant the temperatures had plummeted and there was even snow in many parts, including on Vesuvius! Luckily we had electricity and an emergency heater! The bitterly cold temperatures and the biting wind meant we spent most of the next day exploring in the van.

We drove inland on quiet, windy country roads heading for the town of Teggiano. The route however, had us going up and over quite a large snow-covered, mountain. The likes of which combined with hairpin corners and my nervous disposition resulted in quite a tense drive! The beauty of the surroundings were a welcome distraction though and before long we were back below the snowline safe and sound. This particular route had a very rugged and wild feel to it. As the road wound up and up, towns and villages gave way to deep forest and dramatic, rugged rock faces. The dusting of snow only served to increase the isolated, remote feeling and soon the only signs of life were the huge cattle grazing this secluded corner of the park, adorned with hefty bells round their necks. Oh and the odd Fiat Panda coming the other way, tearing round the corners like a roller-skate on an ice rink! As we descended down the other side of the pass we could see the medieval town of Teggiano perched atop it’s seemingly-perfect circular hill, a warm and welcoming beacon signalling the end of a couple of hours of white knuckle driving. (Actually on reflection I’m pretty sure I was the only one on the edge of my seat, Mr BND was perfectly happy and Peggy was fast asleep next to me, oblivious to it all, tired from her run on the beach that morning!)

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As it turns out Teggiano wasn’t the welcoming beacon we’d hoped for as quite rightly, most people were tucked up in the warmth of their houses and the place was deserted. Luckily there was one cafe open where we could grab a snack for lunch and where we chatted with the proprietor, who hid his inevitable surprise at seeing two mad Brits very well! The town looked very pretty though, a future destination for when shops and restaurants are open again. We pushed on South, back to the warmth (by a couple of degrees!) of the coast and decided to forgo a night in the van for a hotel room instead! My fingers and toes were very pleased! Our destination was Palinuro but on the way we took a slight detour to check out the town of San Severino. This is no ordinary town, the original settlement was built high up on a rocky outcrop at the side of a beautiful gorge. However, it was abandoned in the early nineteenth century due to the construction of a new railway further down the hill. So the inhabitants migrated down the valley leaving a medieval ghost town which you can now visit and walk around; very fascinating, if a little eerie! The sun was going down behind the cliffs casting long shadows on the derelict buildings, adding to the atmosphere. In the dipping sunlight all was peaceful except for the chatter of birds and the tuneful jingle of a herd of goats even higher up the cliff making their way down for the evening. There are so many places like this all over Italy, picturesque little villages and towns that have been forgotten and left over time.

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That night we stayed in Hotel Santa Caterina in the pretty seaside town of Palinuro, where we had the most wonderful view of the sunset from our balcony. A much warmer night ensued and the following morning we explored the little town and it’s marina. We walked along a coastal path to a ruined fort with magnificent views back along the Cilento coast and to the harbour below. Below us the crystal clear blue waters were so serene that we earmarked it as a canoeing location for later in the week. We couldn’t get over how quiet it was. There were rows and rows of parking spaces but no one around except for three local fisherman who informed us parking is free at this time of year. I was astounded. Obviously there are no international visitors due to covid, but the streets and towns of the Sorrento peninsula and Amalfi coast are still busy even now, especially on a beautiful sunny day like this. This area definitely equals, if not surpasses, the beauty of Amalfi in our opinion and is just a wonderful place to explore. Luckily, our Cilento adventure was just beginning and as we drove the coast road north to our next destination of Castellabate we ran out of superlatives at every corner we turned!