Cilento Report 2025
This year, Luigina offered a 7-day trip to Italy in the Cilento National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve in the Campania region from October 12-19.
Sunday, October 12
A group of 26 hikers, including coordinator, Maura Marlow, flew to Naples on October 12, and met Luigina Geusa, our Pugliese guide, who we have been trekking with since 2018. Our evening flight was delayed 35 minutes, so we arrived late at our first hotel, Agritourismo Terra Nostra and went straight to dinner at 11:15 pm, a fabulous feast!
Monday, October 13
Our first trek the next morning was quite long and challenging along the Calore River (the Prince River) Gorge starting in Felitto and ending at Magliano. The up and down rough path earned us a typical Cilento lunch of the homemade fusilli cilentani at Agritourismo L’Occhiano. A couple of people had a go at making the fusilli! And tasted lovely and interesting homemade liquors such as fig leaf!
We headed to the pretty ghost town of Roscigno Vecchia, another abandoned town due to unstable foundations from water damage, now the Parco Archeololgico di Monte Pruno- Roscigno. The pretty piazza and enormous ancient trees facing the façade of the Church of San Nicola offered postcard images of the typical Cilento landscape.
Back to our Agritourismo for another fabulous and generous dinner!
Tuesday, October 14
We drove in our smaller bus (to be able to drive the narrow country roads) to Castelcivita to visit the caves known as the Caves of Spartacus. Equipped with helmets with lights, we made our way, guided deep into the cave, away from the touristic part, and felt like true speleologists for a few hours! We experienced the sensations of the dark, the sound of silence and the wonderful formations, illuminated by our headlights. Lights off, at the end, to experience the blackest black ever!
We then moved to Morigerati, the WWF oasis to admire the the springs of Bussento and grotto and the wonderful old mill, with a guide to explain the history and use. For those who wanted, the virtual reality tour of how the divers tried to discover how the river emerged from underground. Return to our second Agritourismo Tenuta Terre di Bosco for our fish (calamari) dinner!
Wednesday, October 15
We drove in our smaller bus (to be able to drive the narrow country roads) to Castelcivita to visit the caves known as
We drove down to the Porto Marina di Scarico to take the boats to Maratea, a two-hour beautiful trip, admiring the coastline, the mountains inland and the recently opened Skywalk Maratea jutting out high over the sea. From the distance, we caught our first glimpse of the Christ the Redeemer statue high up on the hill.
We arrived at Porto di Maratea to join the other boat group sitting in the sun at the restaurant. Our trek up the winding path (Il Cammino di San Biagio) to the Christ the Redeemer statue gave us tremendous views over Maratea and the sea. It is a stunning statue, made of Carrara marble in 1965 and over 21m high with the arm-span of 19m, and the head 3m in height.
Our day continued with the bus trip to Padula and the guided tour of the Certosa di San Lorenzo, one of the most imposing monasteries, the largest, in South Italy, a UNESCO heritage site dating from 1306. We learned of the strict Carthusian contemplation and work of the monks and how the monastery served the local area with farming and trade. It was also an internment camp during WW1 and WW2. The weather turned cold and windy at the end of our tour reminding us of how cold such building can be in winter!
Thursday, October 16
By the time we arrived at Palinuro, the drizzle as we left the hotel (Hotel Terre di Bosco)
had stopped, and we had good weather for the rest of the day. Our walk along the wonderful promontory gave views across the Cilento coast reminding us of the fear instilled in the ancient sailors who sailed and drowned in these unpredictable waters.
We headed up to the chapel where we sheltered from the strong cold breeze to wait for Gigi from the hotel to bring our picnic (aperitivo) lunch. It was a splendid spread of homemade food and drink, with prosecco and wine shared with another Italian walking group.
Refueled, we made our way down to Camerota to visit an artisan pottery maker. We watched as he produced pots and cups with amazing skill. We had the opportunity to visit his shop to buy places and Christmas cribs, especially.
With a slight drizzle of rain, some of us climbed to another ghost or abandoned village, Borgo medieval di San Severino, left in ruins because of inaccessibility from the new railway line bypassing the village. We were back at 4 pm to relax at our hotel. We all agreed that we had been lucky with the weather so far, given the rainy week in Malta!
Friday, October 17
After breakfast we will set off on foot from our accommodation to reach the very nearby Marina di Camerota. The path we took was a succession of Mediterranean environments, coves nestled in natural bays, towers, caves and steep climbs along the hilly terrain. The first beach we reached was Pozzallo beach, with white stones leading to clear waters. We met a friendly cat who made sure he got in all the photos! Climbing once again to head along the coast and then descend to our second beach, Cala Bianca, again with the white stones. Our third and final beach was the spiaggia degli Infreschi (voted the “best beach in Italy in 2013) with its fresh waters due to the nearby veins of frozen fresh water that flow into the sea. The beach was quiet, the perfect place to have lunch, swim (well done Joe!) and paddle about in the pristine waters. The boat arrived with the non-walkers to take us along the coast to see the wonderful cliffs and caves. We arrived back at Marina di Camerota to sit in the sun and have a drink or ice cream. Another lovely and interesting day.
Saturday, October 18
We headed to Palunuro to begin a walk along the wonderful promontory. From up high, the views across the blue sea were wonderful. We were reminded of how treacherous the sea can be to sailors who were shipwrecked by sudden changes in the weather. And how dangerous the cliffs were as we passed a memorial to a child who died falling off the cliff while walking with his family!
We arrived at Porto to board the boats to take us on our trip along the coast to Cala Fetente and into some caves, including the turquoise waters of the Blue Grotto, seen only at certain angles. People made themselves comfortable in the afternoon sun, a perfect day for an hour and a half sea cruise! Back to our hotel for our last evening meal.
Sunday, October 19
We checked out of our hotel and headed to Tenuta Vannulo Bufallo farm and saw the giant cows (from India), some 600 being fed and pampered and automatically milked to produce the famous mozzarella cheese, sold only in the shop. We had a guided tour, including to the shop where they sold buffalo leather products. Our (more than!) light lunch comprised dishes of cheese, yoghurt and ice cream. We had the opportunity at lunch to thank Luigina for a splendid week, as always!
A short drive took us to our last event at Paestum where we had a guided tour of this famous archaeological area, among the most important in Italy. We saw the splendid temples dedicated to Neptune, Hera and Athena, dating from about 550-450 BCE, and still in an excellent state of preservation. We visited the museum before heading back to the bus and back onwards to Naples airport, which was very crowded! Luckily, our flight was on time and with a strong tail wind we arrived early in Malta!
We had a great week with a varied programme of trekking and culture. We were very lucky with the good weather we had each day, unlike Malta where it rained every day that week! We thank Luigina for putting together a most interesting programme! Till next time!