Ascea, between a rare sea lily and a broom of Cilento
Set in the protected area of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, the territory of Ascea-Velia is included in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and is included in the “MAB” Network program, promoted for conservation, through a lasting balance , of biological diversity, for the promotion of economic development and the safeguard of the attached cultural values.
Of extraordinary beauty is the coast, characterized by an enchanting sandy beach with a large granulometry and an open and crystalline sea, already praised by Virgil and awarded the Blue Flag of the Beaches of Europe as well as the sails of Legambiente and the TCI. The mildness of the climate of these places was already known in antiquity, so much so that at Elea-Velia they stayed Augustus, returning from the East, Cicero, Paolo Emilio, Horace, Brutus and other illustrious personages of Rome.
In the sandy area at midday of the Marina, in the protected strip of one of the very few still intact examples of Mediterranean dune, the increasingly rare Giglio di Mare blooms. The endemic “Ginestra del Cilento”, instead, is perched on the rocks of Punta del Telegrafo, a Site of Community Interest famous for its vegetation and for the geological stratification of the “Flysch del Cilento”.
At the peak of Punta del Telegrafo gorse there is the ruined Torre, almost an outpost of defense of the monumental cliff, characterized by enchanting beaches, superb coves, inaccessible cliffs, caves, a shelter for fishermen’s boats, and mysterious ravines .
Small inlets hide the clear waters of the “Baia d’Argento” and the “Baia delle Rondinelle”, located immediately behind the “Scuoglio ri nanti”, the last point of contact with the mainland.
The multiform and polychrome stain, crown of the beach, gradually merges upwards, in an amazing variety of psammophile plants, with the large expanses of the centuries-old olive trees whose cultivar, according to ancient opinion, was introduced by the Focei.
The product of their squeezing has a taste and a smell of amiable fruit, whose renown is enhanced also through the national circuit of the Oil Towns, to which the Municipality adheres.
