We are planning to visit the Cilento Coast after a week in Naples. We are hoping to find a place that is scenic and close to a small city. We will also hope to do some exploring around the coast and Cilento peninsula. Any recommendations very welcome. Thanks.
We visited many years ago - so hopefully these places are as lovely as they were back then . The water was clean and beautiful and food delicious (this is where you find fresh mozzarella di bufala)
We were living in northern Italy at the time and most of our friends there hadn’t even visited this region. Here are the places I’d recommend looking into for exploring :
Santa Maria di Castellebate - we stayed here but don’t think near a city - mostly small villages nearby
Marina di Camerota
Paestum
Agropoli
Did you see the recent NYT article? It had some nice recommendations, some things I missed when I visited (a decade ago--yikes, time flies). Pisciotta was lovely. The Hotel Mariluvo also rents apartments, and that was where we stayed. I am sure there are agriturismi galore.
I especially liked our visit to Marina di Camerota, where we took a boat ride along the coast and hiked back (coast is rocky down there, similar to Croatia--sandy beaches further north were very natural and pretty). Rain foiled our plans to do more hiking in the interior. We visited Paestum and the lesser ruins at Velia. If Angiolina is still in Marina di Pisciotta, that was our favorite meal--second maybe to eating mozzarella di bufala at the kitchen sink, with it dripping down our chins!
We did it without a car, but we'd get one on return.
Wandering Italy covered it a year or two ago: https://www.wanderingitaly.com/maps/cilento.html
Agropoli is quite nice and from there it's easy to reach Salerno, which qualifies as a city, by train.
Santa Maria di Castellabate is prettier than Agropoli. More info here:
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/search/label/Cilento
However my biggest recommendation is for Tenuta Vannulo, the buffalo farm - Fantastic!!
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/2022/01/naples-in-october-from-agropoli-to.html
Thank you all for the resources and recommendations.!