It's the greatest national park in Campania and includes all the mountains and the hills that rise between the flat of Sele river on the north, Vallo di Diano on the east, the border with Basilicata and the Tyrrhenian sea. Cilento has conserved much of its naturalistic patrimony, in great part not known.The most famous locality is the splendid Capo Palinuro, where there is the unique primrose that doesn't live in mountain, but on the sea, and it is one of the rarer flowers of Italy and symbol of the park. Here many caves open on the water ,the largest and most beautiful is the Grotta Azzurra; the extraordinary color of its waters depends on its two openings. For the atmosphere variety, the harmonic co-existence of coasts and massifs, there are two tipologies of vegetation : the Mediterranean and the Appennine one. From the evergreen spot with ilex, mastic, fillirea, myrtle, several heathers, oleaster and cork tree, we pass to the large beech trees, whitefirs , birch trees, yew trees and mixed wood with maple trees, hornbeams, hazel trees, Turkey oaks, roverelle, hollies, Neapolitan aldersand many chestnut trees. Richest the fauna: between the mammals there are wild cats , foxes ,weasel , badgers, wild boars, hares, polecats and small roditors. It seems that at least a dozen of wolfs still attends the mountains of Cilento, while a great number of birds finds shelter in all the places of the park: in the prairies on high quota it's easy to encounter flocks of coralline choughs and the alpine swift, while more low we find the blackbird, the travelling hawk, the imperial crow, the royal eagle, the red, black and green woodpeckes.

HOW TO ARRIVE

By car

Motorways: The motorway A3 Salerno-Reggio Calabria skirts the perimeter of the park on northern and eastern sides. The more convenient exits are: Battipaglia for coastal part from Agropoli to Palinuro; Campagna, Sicignano and Petina for Mounts Alburni; Sala Consilina and Padula for the area of Cervati; still Padula for coastal part from Policastro to Marina di Camerota. Ordinary road:

State road 18 Tirrena inferior, in via transformation in superhighway, that goes from Agropoli to Policastro passing for Vallo della Lucania;

state road 166 of the Alburni cuts in latitudinal sense the park from San Rufo to Old Capaccio ;

the 267 of Cilento follows the coast from Agropoli until Velia to cross the 447 of Palinuro.

By train

Stations:

It's possible to use the line Naples-Salerno-Reggio Calabria that serves all the coastal zone of the park, while the Battipaglia-Lagonegro crosses the northern side of the Alburni.