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A trip report from Cilento National Park

by K-Rae Nelson, Solana Beach, California

K-Rae stayed at Villa Trotta for two weeks in August/September 2004.

We have vacationed in Italy several times, but never south of Umbria. This was our first experience in Southern Italy and apart from some summary descriptions of local villages, the guidebooks we found were curiously silent on the Cilento region. Since the Summer In Italy web site and the numerous guest comments were so informative, we were confident that the Villa Trotta itself would be magnificent. However, we didn't know if we were headed towards a rare hidden jewel or a desolate corner of Italy best left unexplored. We were delighted to find that our experiences reflected much of the former and none of the latter.

We had several misadventures we could have happily forgone including having our car towed in Agropoli, a subsequent meeting with the local carabinieri and finally, while descending one of those nail-biting roads on the Amalfi coast, a snapped tension bar on our rental car. Throughout all of these encounters we had an amazingly good rapport with everyone we met from the Agropoli police officers and the Salerno Avis agent to the Ravello bus drivers and hotel employees who went out of their way to assist us.

We also had excellent "discussions" (I use this term loosely given our degree of competence in Italian) with people even when we weren't in crisis mode. We enjoyed shopping in Perdifumo which, according to my pedometer, is one mile from the Villa. I especially enjoyed my interactions with the owners of the smaller of the two alimentari, which is run by a couple and their daughters. We managed to have a couple of conversations with the friendly owner of the café who was justifiably proud of his granita di amarene made with cherries he put up himself. The pharmacist and tabacchi owner were also very helpful and friendly.

Neither English nor French were foolproof means of communication and we often had to resort to our cobbled together Romanian-Spanish-French-inspired "Italian". You can imagine the unintelligible patois that we must have concocted, but I have never met a people so proficient at communicating with so little information at their disposal. The most profound memory I brought back from this vacation was our contacts with the Italians from the area.

The arrival

We drove down from Naples and since we were unsure of how long the drive would take and were anxious to get settled in, we decided to leave the Amalfi coast experience for another day. The directions we had received were quite clear and prepared me for the very steep drive up to the church. Franco, Gioconda's husband, happened to be in his car at the corner and witnessed our attempts to make the sharp right turn. (Thereafter, we followed Franco's advice and made a U-turn at the next street up, thus sparing both our nerves and the transmission.)

We were several hours early since the drive turned out to be less than two hours (the longest stretch was beginning at Battipaglia at the SS 18 turn off). Gioconda was a very gracious host in spite of our early arrival and spent a lot of time showing us around the house. I was curious about the pizza oven, having read about it on the web site. Franco spent at least thirty minutes giving us detailed instructions, in Italian, on how to properly make a fire. We started out with the best of intentions, but in the end, we decided we're not excited enough about pizza to go through the effort. We did make two lovely fires and barbecued twice in the fire pit next to the pizza oven.
The web site is so well designed that there were few surprises when we arrived and only good ones at that. From the web site pictures, I thought we were going to have an "ocean peek" view. As it was, we spent many daylight and evening hours gazing out at the 180º coastal view from the three terraces. On clear days and evenings we could even see Capri. Before retiring at night I would gaze at the sky from the bedroom windows and slip out onto the balcony from the bathroom for a last glance before bed.

Getting Around

We tried in every way possible to cut the driving time to Salerno, the gateway to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii, but it still took one hour every time. The drive through Battipaglia to the A3 is rather uninteresting. We found that the coastal route through Paestum was not significantly shorter time-wise, although the drive was more scenic, traffic was more fluid and we were much more relaxed. This also allowed us to discover the sandy beaches hiding behind the roadside pine forests. From Agropoli Sud we would get onto the SS 18 towards Salerno and exit at the first Paestum exit.

Food

Since one of my vacation pleasures is to cook, I was thoroughly charmed by the kitchen at the Villa Trotta. The long wooden table is perfect for preparing meals and eating inside, which we did mostly at night when we came back late. Otherwise, we ate under the beautiful and cool kiwi arbor. There is also plenty of room to put the outdoor table right next to the outside kitchen and fire pit. My only regret was that it was never chilly enough to have a fire in the kitchen fireplace. We'll have to return in the fall some year!

I enjoyed grocery shopping in Perdifumo, Acciaroli and Santa Maria di Castellabate. The friendly woman at the smaller Perdifumo alimentari taught me the Italian names for their vegetables and we enjoyed a soup made from the gigantic green-skinned, orange-fleshed squash they called zucca. I also purchased fresh borlotti beans from her that I cooked and then served tossed with olive oil, sliced onions and tuna, as well as rape, somewhat bitter greens that I served sautéed with garlic and the remaining borlotti beans. There is an especially good grocery/deli on the main drag of Santa Maria di Castellabate where we purchased excellent prosciutto, parmesan and grilled, marinated artichokes.

Local Life

For me, the best part of this vacation was really getting a feel for local customs and habits. Following Gioconda's recommendation, we went to a sagra at the Eucalyptus Agriturismo complex our first night at the Villa. A sagra is a local party, open to the public, with food and dancing. We enjoyed the goat stew castrato (a first) and fusilli pasta with tomato sauce. We were the only non-Italian speakers there and it was a great way to kick off our stay, although unfortunately, we left before Miss Eucalyptus could be crowned. There appeared to be a sagra every weekend evening somewhere in the region. Several times in the evening from the terrace at the Villa, we enjoyed catching the highest of the firework displays from local festivities in other villages.

The passeggiata is a tradition not to be missed. The streets, which are barren and uninviting at 4 pm, begin to fill at 5:30 or so. Stores in Agropoli and Santa Maria di Castellabate begin opening around 6 pm and according to the signs on the doors, some of them stay open until midnight! We would do our shopping at 7 pm or so and by the time we were ready to head home, the streets would just be getting interesting. People of all ages stroll the streets until quite late. You can sit in a café or on a street bench in Agropoli and watch the parade or join the crowd strolling down the main street exchanging greetings.

Part 2: beaches, excursions, restaurants >

Go to:

Cilento National Park

Acciaroli
Agropoli
Ascea Marina - Velia
Castelcivita
Castellabate
Marina di Camerota
Padula
Paestum
Palinuro
Perdifumo
Pertosa
Teggiano

The Amalfi Coast

Sorrentine Peninsula

The Gulf of Naples

Nearby sights
Pompeii
The Royal Palace of Caserta
Naples
Salerno

Rent your holiday cottage in the Cilento National Park!

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