Palinuro

By Walter Sanders

We always tell our readers and friends that Italy is great, but try and avoid it in August. Ferragosto is when Italians have a month of vacation, and many go to the seaside. Those towns are jammed, and the Italians who work there would rather be someplace else.

So we broke one of our own cardinal rules. We were invited to spend time with a friend in Pisciotta on top of a hill overlooking the Cilento Coast south of Salerno. When our hostess needed to commit to some other friends, we had the opportunity to ride with a driver named Francesca to Palinuro.

She was a delight. And incredibly helpful. (She stored an extra bag in her home while we traveled the shore: a generous offer and a guarantee that we would engage her again later in the trip.) We chatted all the way to Palinuro.

Francesca and her husband surprised us at the train station to say buon viaggio when we left Palinuro.

She dropped us off in the center of town near the Pro Loco, an office that might be helpful in finding us a place to stay. If we couldn’t find a place to stay in this busiest month of the year in this seaside town, we could stay with her and her husband in the hills. We thanked her for her kind offer.

It was 1:30 PM when we went to the Pro Loco which serves as the nexus of tourism. It was closed until 4:00 PM. So we decided to have lunch. We returned to the Pro Loco shortly after 4:00 PM. It was locked. We sat on a shaded bench outside the front door and waited. We could her the phone ringing in the office.

About 4:45 PM a lovely lady approached, unlocked the door, put on the lights, and booted up her computer. We gave her some time to get organized, then I entered to discuss finding a room.

She gave me the sad news that every hotel, pensione, B and B room was booked. And most had been reserved for a year. I asked her if she had any recommendations. She asked if we would mind staying with a family, her family,

We stayed with her family in a lovely room with a private bath, broad terraces and a distant view of the sea. It was special.

Contact info: Francesca Iorio mobile: 340 5594744

Question: What’s wrong with this picture?

Answer: Absolutely nothing!

I snapped this beauty from the terrazza of the Hotel Il San Pietro di Positano, a Relais & Chateaux property named one of the best hotels in the world by the readers of Condé Nast Traveler.

I was with a group of travel professionals and writers touring the hotel during a recent certification program hosted by the province of Salerno, which occupies about half of the region of Campania. The Italian Government Tourist Board North America (ENIT) and Alitalia Airlines were also sponsors.

In three action packed days, our Salerno hosts treated us to some hidden gems. They’re working hard to expand awareness of Salerno’s offerings, the best known of which are the towns clinging to the Amalfi Coast.

The Villa Cimbrone Hotel in Ravello.

Salerno is the Amalfi but a lot more as well. It is the mountains north of the coast that divide costiera d’amalfi from Naples and also the large area south of the city of Salerno. This includes the incomparable Greek ruins at Paestum, plenty of beaches, and the wild beauty of the Cilento national park.

In my upcoming posts, I’ll share some tastes and sights of Salerno province where new doors were opened for me.