The Cilento tours are designed to give you a full knowledge of the territory, people, history, uses & tradition of this amazing area of the Campania region. The itinerary includes various activities: food & wine, hiking, local experiences, visit to archaeological sites.
Linked to the Cilento area is the so called “Grand Tour”. Term coined by Richard Lassels, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest and travelling tutor, in his book The Voyage of Italy; travelers, men of culture and adventurers. Young English patricians that one day will lead their country, should complete their studies by observing, under the guidance of a tutor, the customs, habits and history of the Continent. During more than three Centuries, Italy was the destinations of writers, poets, musicians, philosophers, painters. Montesquieu, Goethe, Lamartine, Stendhal, Dickens, Strutt, Lawrence, Jackson, Ramage, Ruskin, Mary Shelley, Byron…
In Southern Italy, travellers were coming to visit the ruins of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum, Velia and the whole Cilento region and Vallo di Diano. In this territory, uncontaminated areas alternate with heavily built-up ones. A unique ecosystem that has earned its inclusion in the exclusive list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Almost the entire territory of Cilento and Vallo di Diano (80 municipalities) are part of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park. Established in 1991, with 180,000 hectares of surface, it represents the largest protected area in Italy. Is the homeland of the famous MEDITERRANEAN DIET. Described for the first time in 1954 by the American researcher Ancel Keys. He moved in the village of Pioppi, with his wife, and spent the rest of his life there.
On the Cilento tours, you can see the marks left on the territory by the presence of the ancient italic races. Greeks, Samnites, Romans, Byzantines, Saracens, Lombards, Normans, Swabians, Ottomans, Angevins, Aragoneses, and Bourbons. From the magnificent Doric temples of Paestum to the excavations of the ancient city of Velia, where the footsteps of Parmenides can be still heard. You will get an unparalleled natural heritage: valleys and hills, mountains, gorges, rugged cliffs, churches, abbeys, hamlets and villages, castles, farms. Go back in the time when the adventurous travelers of the Grand Tour, on horses and carriages, discovered these places.
NOTE: THIS ITINERARY CAN BE TAILOR-MADE ACCORDINGLY TO YOUR NEEDS, WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO & SEE, MORE ACTIVITIES.
We will be based in an agriturismo in the middle of an olive trees grove, between the mountains & the sea: https://www.pianodellacorte.it/en/
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