The heart of the Cilento natural Park throbs on Mount Gelbison (in Arabic it means «mount of the Idol»). Here, at 1700 metres, there is one of the most spectacular sanctuaries of Southern Italy, a balcony embracing the coast from Capri to Maratea. Every year thousands of pilgrims climb sandstone paths to worship the Madonna of the Mount arrived from the East with the monks. King Mortedda is at the foot of the mountain swollen with water: it is the mozzarella with myrtle, it is a  stretched-curd cheese which is made by shepherds with “podolica” cow’s milk and it is just warmed up.

The coagulation takes a bit more than one hour, then the curd is broken and it matures without serum: that makes the “mortedda” different from the “mozzarella” because the final product is dry and more compact. Then, ten pieces of cheese are wrapped up in bundles of “mortella”, that is, myrtle, growing plentiful here as far as the coasts of Ascea and Palinuro, and these bundles are tied with buds of brooms and other herbs. The result is a good-smelling, typical product which Slow Food decided to save founding a specific presidium because its millenary tradition was attempted by the Anglo-Saxon sanitary paranoia which has given life to the sad and depersonalized motorway cafés of 2000. In 1991 Benedetta and Vittoria Chirico opened a dairy with their name which now is in the Zampini countryside in Ascea Marina (phone +39 0974 971584), within a stone’s throw from the excavations of Velia, the ancient Elea of Parmenide and Zenone. The firm includes cattle of about 200 cows and 150 buffalos and both these two kinds of milk are processed here. The same happens at La Vallesina of Vito Ruggiero which was opened in Vallo della Lucania in 1995 (via Cammarota, 55. Phone +39 0974 2158). Finally a short time ago a third producer, Carrozza, was born (in Cerrelli di Altavilla Silentina, via Dimesse, 14. Phone +39 0828 986373), he processes his own milk and he opened a new sales point in Vallo, in via Nazionale 151-153. The «mortedda» costs about 10,5 Euros if it is made with cow’s milk whereas it costs 11,5 Euros if it is made with buffalo milk.

About buffalos, I recommend meat and salamis of the Consorzio Alba in the near Ogliastro Cilento, in the Difesa neighbourhood (phone +39 0974 838723), within a stone’s throw from Agropoli which is worthy of a stop above all for the very fresh seafood caught from the trawlers of Castellabate and Acciaroli. You can find other kinds of salami like “capicollo” and soppressata” at the Longo Brothers butcher’s shop in Vallo (via Famiglia de Mattia, 23. Phone +39 0974 3160). And what about the honey which can be associated with the local matured pecorino cheese? I recommend three farmhouses which produce it at the foot of Mount Gelbison: Prisco in San Mauro La Bruca (phone +39 0974 974153), Le Favate in Ascea (phone +39 0974 977153) and the Alveare del Cilento of Stefania Postiglione in Agropoli (via Fuonti, 129. Phone +39 0974 833095).