Susan,
My partner and I have just come back from Pisciotta a few days ago. We love it there. It is a totally unspoilt little town, perched on a hilltop, with the sea just a 1km walk down a steep path. (The sewer line follows the path, as the little treatment plant is near the bottom of it so you do get the occasional whiff, but the walk down and back is very scenic and great exercise).
This was our second visit and we stayed a week each time. Main local products are olive oil (the town is surrounded by really ancient olive trees) and anchovies.
It is not a very touristy destination, so hardly anyone speaks English, but one person who does is the manager of the Conad 'supermarket' (just a medium-sized grocery store) on the main street. There is only one main street, which is the street through town. The rest of it is an ancient, traffic-free jumble of old houses and steps and alleyways.
Pisciotta is just an ordinary little town with ordinary people going about their daily business. It's bit scruffy in places, with quite a few tumbledown buildings. The real, authentic, southern Italy. That's why we like it. And the local olive oil is superb. Conad sells an organic one, which we love.
There's one really superb restaurant called the Tre Gufi (3 tawny owls), which has great food and a terrace with a view to die for.
Market once a week, in the tiny square. There are several grocery stores, several pharmacies, some cafes, a post office (the proper one is closed for repairs but there's a temporary one in a pre-fab building near the square) hardware, electrical store, hairdressers, a couple of gift shops, a tobbaconist, a bank with an ATM. Everything you would need, really. No Internet cafe though. The nearest we could find was in Sapri.
There is also a language school called Pisciotta Lingua, but I think they are closed in the autumn.
Last year we rented a car, but this year we took the train from Rome (via Salerno) and caught a bus from the station up to town.
There are some great walks in the hills above the town. (The 'town hall' just up the steps from the square has a map). And if you go to Palinuro be sure and take a boat to visit the grottoes.
We rented an apartment (Casa Sonia) through a German agency called Cilentano
>Holidays in the Cilento, Southern Italy: holiday homes, apartments, hotels. They have quite a few apartments and you might score a vacancy. Self-catering is a lot cheaper than having to eat out, as you know.
I don't remember seeing any hotels per se, but the people who own Casa Sonia have a lovely 'agriturismo' called La Locanda del Fiume a Machina. It is perched right on the side of the gorge. There's a description of it, with pictures at
Wedding Italy - An Agriturismo and it has its own website at
A'Machina - La locanda del fiume :: Azienda Agrituristica :: Pisciotta (SA)B&B there is 40 euros a night in October.
If you decide to go further down the coast, another town I can highly recommend is Maratea, over the border in Basilicata. We stayed there a few days this year, for the first time, and we loved it. More touristy than Pisciotta but tastefully so. We stayed at a gorgeous hotel called the Capo Casale. See
Maratea Hotels - Hotel Capo Casale Maratea Italy
If there is anything more I can help with, you can contact me through the contact page on my website
The Elderwoman Website
Buon viaggio!!
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