The Cilento National Park is located in Campania, considered to be the real beginning of Italy’s south. In Roman times, this region was known as Campania Felix (Happy Land), and still today it’s not hard to see why.

Our walk follows coastal paths between the medieval towns of Agropoli and Santa Maria di Castellabate – the latter, along with hilltop Castellabate, appeared in the cult Italian film ‘Benvenuti al Sud’.  Then you’ll head around Punta Licosa, a rocky outlook named after one of the sirens Ulysses met in ‘The Odyssey’. The path follows closely around the coast’s edge and climbs into the mountains, affording fabulous views across to Cilento’s better known neighbours, the Amalfi Coast and Capri, on a clear day.

Explore Castellabate, one of I Borghi più belli d’Italia (the most beautiful villages in Italy), before an easier but nonetheless glorious walk to Perdifumo and a lift onwards to Rocca Cilento, where you will spend two nights, walking the Valley of the Mills on your second day. Then comes one of our favourite walks – a steady climb up to Monte Stella, the spiritual heart of ancient Cilento, before a gentle descent through chestnut woods to a welcoming agriturismo just below Galdo.

Our final walk to the quiet fishing village of Acciaroli, said to inspire Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Old Man and the Sea’, does not disappoint either. Visit Celso, where the rebellion of 1848 began, and then pass through a succession of small, historical villages, each with its own story to tell.

Standing in Castellabate in 1811, Napoleon’s brother-in-law (King of Naples in the early 1800s) uttered the words now engraved on the castle walls – “Qui non si muore” (here you do not die). Well, he wasn’t entirely right, but Cilento has an extraordinary number of centenarians – some say it’s the Mediterranean diet, others that the stairs in the villages keep them active. All in all, a perfect combination, whether for one week or a century…