The Coastal Landscape of Cilento (Southern Italy): A Challenge for Protection and Tourism Valorisation

Abstract

A striking coastline, about 100 km long, characterizes the southernmost part of the Campania region. It is comprised within one of the largest National Parks of Italy, named “Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni Park”. The coast preserves a great number of geological and geomorphological features, frequently well integrated with anthropic structures, which makes it a unique landscape. The morphology of the coastal area of the Park is characterized by hills sloping down to the sea, where alternate bays with small beaches and rocky headlands, hosting a large number of Norman-Aragonese watchtowers. Limestone cliffs display impressive karst landforms, such as caves, which have undoubtedly favoured human presence since the Middle Paleolithic. In this suggestive landscape several landforms and deposits permit to reconstruct the Quaternary-aged sea-level changes.