Salerno and its surrounding

The Cilentan Coast

From Agropoli to Santa Maria di Castellabate, to Ogliastro Marina, to Acciaroli, to Palinuro and to Marina di Camerota, a sandy coastline dips into the deep blue sea in a perfumed setting of resin from the Aleppo pines behind, filling the sunshine air with grassy rhythms.
This is the sea of the sailors of the Odyssey and of the sirens who transformed themselves into rocks. One of them, Licosa, was the siren who in lovesick desperation transformed herself into the rock which now bears her name.

Ernest Hemingway – in the early fifties of the last century – used to come here to fish and to sprawl out in his boat, way out at sea where time seemed to stand still. Legend has it that here he was inspired to write his ‘Old Man and The Sea’ – a sea of cobalt blue which turns to pale blue in the shadows of the pine woods, winding itsway into the distance amongst the gnarled and majestic olive trees – the tiny silver green liaves, te black cliffs of Pisciotta – and rests silently in the grottoes and rocky cliffs and golden beaches and bays.