A journey into the unknown

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2 NAPLES & BEYOND A journey into the unknown South of the Amalfi coast is the Cilento, 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 PAESTUM, 40km from the Amalfi coast, are the southernmost point on the standard tourist map of Italy. 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 Naples, 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 Vallo di Diano 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 Camerota and Sapri. 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 Castellabate and Maratea pushes out into the Tyrrhenian Sea. echoing the thrust of the Amalfi peninsula to the 96 Condé Nast Traveler The Best of Italy

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4 north. The resorts along the 135km stretch are smallscale, without the facilities of Amalfi. Positano or Capri. The upside, though, is a genuine welcome and eagerness to please that has been lost in the tourist shops of the Bay of Naples. This was brought home to me with some force at Maratea train station, where a 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 explained, to the people behind me in the queue. Velia makes an obvious stopover between Castellabate and Maratea. Ignore the other sleeve-tuggers: Acciaroli must have been prettier (one hopes) when Hemingway hung out here. Palinuro sounds a lot better than it looks, and although the approach to Marina di Camerota - along a wide beach at the foot of dramatic, caveriddled red cliffs - is spectacular, the town itself is an apologetic, slapdash jumble. But it's Upper row, left to right: Locanda delle Donne Monache in Maratea; Marina di Maratea; Palazzo Belmonte hotel; grotto near Palinuro; forest; San Marco di Castellabate; Lower row: pool at Locanda delle Donne Monache; Centola, inland from Palinuro; Il Coniglio island off Palinuro; Palazzo Belmonte; coast near Palinuro; Sant'Agata, above Palinuro worth stopping to get a boat along the coast to Cala degli Infreschi, an idyllic pirates' cove of a beach, with water a shade of bluegreen that you thought existed only on celluloid. Around on the other side of the Golfo di Policastro, the medieval village of Maratea is the only place between Amalfi and Taormina to have real style, and the facilities to indulge it. So far discovered mainly by Italian tourists, Maratea is a tiny cluster of houses, with one main strolling street and more churches than bars. The rocky coast 98 Condé Nast Traveler The Best of Italy

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

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