Environmental Education

Also this year, Ente Parco Nazionale del Cilento e Vallo di Diano offers to the schools within the Park area and in the adjacent areas the possibility to join the above-mentioned program.
Schools play an important role in the education of the protected area, since it can transform environmental education projects in multidisciplinary activities and can work for the creation of an ecological mind, of a different point of view on the environment, considered as an "open system" of relationships.
For this reason, the Park Authority has always thought that the privileged interlocutor for the development of Environmental Education programs could be schools at any grade, above all those within the Park territory.
The institutional aim of this Park Authority is to reach the highest level of collaboration with schools, giving each Institute the chance to choose among several educational proposals and offering them a support to carry out environmental education projects.
Moreover, the Park - a privileged environmental education workshop - aims at leading new generations to the discovery of the protected area, to understand its value in a territory characterized by a considerable human pressure.
The Program "A Scuola nel Parco" consists of environmental education proposals organized by the Park Authority and already presented in the previous school years to kindergartens, elementary, middle, and secondary schools of the protected area, aiming at promoting the creation of interdisciplinary projects to include in the Educational Offer.

ILOCAL PRODUCTS

Cilento is a land rich in agricultural and craftsmanship traditions.
The agricultural activities are carried out with traditional and non-intensive methods and give birth to quality products which are characteristic of the famous "Mediterranean diet".
The intense craftsmanship activity creates products of great beauty and extraordinary skill.

Caciocavallo Podolico
Podolica cow, descending from Bos Primigenius, lives in the inland areas of Southern Italy, including Cilento e Vallo di Diano National Park.
Caciocavallo prepared with its milk has been named after this cow; however, according to some hypotheses, it comes from the provola maturation process carried out astride horizontal poles, thus "cacio a cavallo".

Cacioricotta
Cacioricotta is a characteristic cheese of Cilento e Vallo di Diano National Park.
It is obtained from mixed goat and sheep milk or only from goat milk, in the period between June and August, at the end of the sheep lactation. It has been named after its production technique.
It has a cylindrical shape with flat sides and a slightly wrinkled crust.

Muzzarella co' a murtedda
Muzzarella co' a murtedda is a traditional product of lower Cilento and derives from the processing of cow milk.
The ancient habit to preserve mozzarella in small branches of "mortedda" or "mortella", the dialect name of the myrtle (Myrtus communis), probably derives from the need to preserve and transport it from the pastures where it was produced to the town.

Pecorino Cheese
For centuries, sheep milk has always been transformed into cacio.
It has a cylindrical shape, a hard and wrinkled crust with a golden yellow color.
The white texture is compact, with rare holes with a small diameter.
It has a persistent and slightly spicy taste if well matured and a pungent odor rich in aromas, due to the pasture.
It can be eaten fresh, as table cheese, or, after a long maturatio.

Chestnuts
Cilento, an area very rich in vegetation and above all in forests, is very important also for the production of chestnuts.
Roccadaspide chestnuts (also called marroni di Roccadaspide) are very famous, together with Alburni chestnuts.
They have a medium size and a compact and rather sweet pulp, covered by a membrane you can easily take off.

Cilento White Fig
Cilento white fig has exclusive features: a yellow-green skin, an abundant pulp, and a very sweet taste.
About 80,000 tons/year are produced.
It can be eaten fresh, dried, or as a syrup.
Dried figs are without a doubt an aristocratic production in the field of dried fruits.
It is prepared in various ways: filled with walnuts and almonds, covered with chocolate, or in a wooden stick like kebabs.

PDO Extra-virgin Olive Oils
Entering in Cilento e Vallo di Diano National Park is like entering in a big olive grove: as a matter of fact, every Municipality, both in the mountains and along the coast, is rich in centuries-old and new olive trees.
They give the landscape a velveted green color and ensure the local people an essential income since ancient times.

Menaica Anchovies
Anchovies fishing, which is still carried out with the so-called menaica (traditional net) and menaide (a small rowing fishing boat), is surviving only in Pisciotta, in the Province of Salerno. Fishermen go out fishing at night and at dawn their women immediately clean the anchovies and cover them with salt in terracotta jars.

Gioi Brawn
The historical information on Gioi brawn date back to 1835, as demonstrated by Compendio di Agricoltura Pratica: "...among the best brawns there are Noia brawns; however, Cilento brawns are excellent, especially those produced in Gioi, in the Principality of Citra...".
Unlikely many others, this brawn is made with prime-quality meat which gets even cleaned from small nerves.

DOC Castel San Lorenzo
The charming and uncontaminated territory of Cilento e Vallo di Diano National Park includes two wine designations of the interesting wine growing panorama of Campania. The designations are relatively recent, but without a doubt bound to gradually connote the rural landscape and to create a very significant development trend.

DOC Cilento
The charming and uncontaminated territory of Cilento e Vallo di Diano National Park includes two wine designations of the interesting wine growing panorama of Campania.
The designations are relatively recent, but without a doubt bound to gradually connote the rural landscape and to create a very significant development trend.