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Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park
Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	Italy
Type	Natural
Criteria	C (iii) (iv)
Reference	n. 842
Region**	Europe and North America
	Inscription history
Inscription	1998 (22nd Session)
	* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.; ** Region as classified by UNESCO.

For the national park, see Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park.

National Park nearby Cannalonga

Cilento is an Italian geographical region of Campania in the central and southern part of the Province of Salerno and an important tourist area of southern Italy.

[edit] Geography

The coast (on Tyrrhenian Sea) is located between Paestum and the Gulf of Policastro, near the town of Sapri. More of touristic towns by the coast are "frazioni"; as for example Santa Maria di Castellabate, Acciaroli, Velia, Palinuro, Marina di Camerota, Scario and Policastro Bussentino.
The inner boundaries are the Alburni mountains and Vallo di Diano, sometimes considered as part of cilentan geographical region, which has in Sala Consilina its largest center. The most important towns in this area are Vallo della Lucania (in the middle), Sapri and Agropoli: this is the largest town of Cilento and the principal harbour. Most of this area is included in "Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park".

[edit] History

[edit] Greek colony

The region is steeped in greek mythology and legends, as in the names of some towns, which is also visible in the remains of the colonies of Velia (ancient Elea) and Paestum (ancient Poseidonia). Velia was also the seat of "Eleatics", a school of pre-Socratic philosophers as Parmenides, Zeno of Elea and Melissus of Samos).

[edit] Sixth province of Campania

In the 90's it was proposed to institute a new province in Campania, the one of Cilento ^[1]. Very far to be realized, it had also the problem to choose a seat. The four candidates are Vallo della Lucania (in central position), Agropoli (the greatest one, positioned in the north), Sala Consilina (most populous town of Vallo di Diano) and Sapri (center of southern Cilento, most important railway station). Another proposition, more recent, would to move Cilento from Campania to Basilicata, as a third province ^[2] after Potenza and Matera.

[edit] National Park

Main article: Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park

In a great part of the territory of Cilento and Vallo di Diano it was instituted, on 1991, a national park, to protect the territory from building speculation and mass tourism. In 1998 the park becomes a World Heritage Site of UNESCO.

[edit] Coast

Main article: Cilentan Coast

The Cilentan Coast, or Costiera Cilentana in Italian, is a stretch of coastline situated in the gulfs of Salerno and Policastro, extending in 16 municipalities; from Capaccio-Paestum in the north-west to Sapri in the sout-east.

[edit] Language

Main article: Cilentan language

Cilento was part of ancient Lucania, and its language is influenced by Lucanian. In the north of Cilento the dialect is more influenced by neapolitan language, but in the southern part it has many similarities with Sicilian.

[edit] Photogallery

Agropoli	Velia	Licosa island in the Comune of Castellabate	Paestum
Paestum	Romagnano al Monte	S.Maria di Castellabate	Cape Palinuro

[edit] References

^ (Italian) Information about the new province
^ (Italian) Article on Corriere della Sera

[edit] Bibliography

Maurizio Tortora: Cilientu mia. Edizione del Delfino, 1977, Naples
Giuseppe Vallone: Dizionarietto etimologico del basso Cilento. Editore UPC, 2004
Pietro Rossi: Ieri e oggi 1955-2005. Poesie in cilentano. Grafiche Erredue, 2005
Barbara Schäfer: Limoncello mit Meerblick. Unterwegs an der Amalfiküste und im Cilento. Picus, 2007, ISBN 978-3-85452-924-8
Peter Amann: Cilento aktiv mit Costa di Maratea - Aktivurlaub im ursprünglichen Süditalien. Mankau, 2007, ISBN 3938396083
Peter Amann: Golf von Neapel, Kampanien, Cilento. Reise Know-How, 2006, ISBN 3831715262
Barbara Poggi: La Cucina Cilentana - Köstlichkeiten aus der Cilento-Küche. Mankau, 2006, ISBN 3938396024
Luciano Pignataro: Le ricette del Cilento. Ed. Ippogrifo, 2007, ISBN 978-88-8898643-2