Coves, mountain landscapes and cuisine: in Italy, the forgotten charms of Cilento
data-modal-image-caption=Bosco, a small hamlet in the commune of San Giovanni a Piro, located at the foot of Mount Bulgheria. data-modal-image-credit=Éric Martin for «Le Figaro Magazine»> 
FEATURE REPORT - South of Salerno, this little-known region stretches all the way to Basilicata, featuring Greek temples, enchanting coves, and a mountainous hinterland dotted with forgotten villages. Ideal for hiking, Cilento has been renowned since ancient times for its cuisine, a true elixir of youth.
The milky dawn touches the silhouette of the Sottano and Soprano mountains, karst hills a few kilometers from Paestum. In the pastures of the San Salvatore farm, the buffaloes observe the unusual visitors with their large, moist, melancholy eyes. Milking time is approaching. While listening to Mozart, the mas todontes will give their porcelain-white milk. Barely out of their udders, it will be transported to the dairy to be transformed by hand, according to ancestral gestures, into excellent mozzarella, one of the best in Campania. Arriving with the Arab conquerors over a millennium ago, the buffalo long plowed the marshes of Cilento before being cherished for its milk with its remarkable nutritional values.
In the engravings made at the end of the 18th century by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, cattle graze near the Doric columns of the Temple of Neptune, surrounded by water. Built in the 5th century BC by the Sybarites…
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