The last town in Campania before Basilicata, Sapri overlooks a horseshoe-shaped bay surrounded by evergreen hills. Its seafront is home to the statue of the Spigolatrice, linked to the memory of Carlo Pisacane's Risorgimento expedition in 1857, and the remains of the Torre della Specola, with its viewpoint over the Gulf of Policastro. For walkers, Sapri is the starting point of the Cammino di San Nilo: more than 100 km of trails through inland Cilento, among woods, villages and abbeys.

Just across the border into Basilicata, one of Italy's most imposing statues rises on the summit of Monte San Biagio: 21 metres high, with a 19-metre arm span, visible from all the towns of the Gulf of Policastro. Christ the Redeemer was sculpted by Bruno Innocenti between 1963 and 1965 and has since become the visual landmark of this entire coast. Behind it opens one of the most spectacular viewpoints in the southern Tyrrhenian area. Access is free all year round. For those who want to walk up, a trail of about 2.4 km starts from the Basilica of San Biagio; since 2021 there has also been a via ferrata with Tibetan bridges for those looking for something more adventurous.

Scario is one of those villages that reveals itself slowly. Houses climb the rock, connected by narrow lanes and stairways leading directly to the sea. From its harbour, excursions depart for the wildest beaches of the Cilento coast, which are almost exclusively accessible by water.

Considered one of Italy's most beautiful bays, Infreschi is a cove of white pebbles smoothed by the water, set within the Masseta Marine Protected Area. The sea here is cold, clear and deep. It can be reached by boat from Scario or Marina di Camerota, or on foot along a trail through the Mediterranean woodland.

Marina di Camerota alternates between sandy, equipped beaches and almost inaccessible coves, offering something for every kind of traveller. Cala Bianca is the pearl of the coast: pale sand, turquoise water and silence, reachable only by sea or via a panoramic trail through the greenery. Marina's historic centre, with its arches and lanes descending toward the harbour, is worth an evening walk. A little inland lies Camerota Alta, a medieval village with a castle and Gulf views that are worth the trip on their own.

Capo Palinuro is a limestone promontory stretching two kilometres into the Tyrrhenian Sea, with sheer cliffs and a system of more than 35 caves carved by water over millennia. The most famous is the Blue Grotto: light enters through an underwater passage and turns the water into a turquoise glow that looks almost unreal. Boat excursions depart from the harbour of Palinuro and also stop at Baia del Buon Dormire, a sandy beach reachable only by sea and a historic refuge for fishermen during storms.

This is the municipality of which Villammare is a hamlet. The historic centre sits about 150 metres above sea level, with stone lanes and terraces from which the Gulf of Policastro opens out in its full breadth. A quiet walk, away from the coast and mass tourism.

A small inland village with a character all its own. It is home to the agro-silvo-pastoral Ethnographic Museum, founded in 1976 by two local teachers who wanted to preserve the objects of Cilento peasant culture. But the real spectacle is natural: the Bussento river disappears underground several kilometres upstream and re-emerges here through the Bussento Caves, now a WWF Oasis, in a striking underground spring.

The most photographed waterfalls in Cilento take their name from the maidenhair fern, which grows naturally on the damp rocks thanks to the microclimate created by the waters of the Bussentino river. The setting is that of a protected oasis: dense vegetation, silence and water descending over green travertine walls. Entry requires a small symbolic fee.

The Ciolandrea Plateau is known as the Belvedere of the Four Regions: from this viewpoint you can see Campania, Basilicata and Calabria together, and on the clearest days the silhouettes of the Aeolian Islands on the horizon. It is the starting point for several trails toward the sea, including the one descending to Marcellino beach in the Marine Protected Area.