We Campania: There Is More to Naples Off the Beaten Track

Everybody knows Naples. The city is famous for its culture and traditions, for its stunning beauty, for its luscious foods such as pizza and mozzarella, for its music and for its dialect, which is more of a language and a very important key to understanding it fully. 

Amilcare Troiano and Alfredo Aurilio

Pictures by Jane Kratochvil

But Campania, where Naples is located, is much more than just Naples, and representatives from the Region came to New York to shed a light on the most beautiful hidden gems for American tourists who wish to go off the beaten track.
 

On April 18, ENIT hosted an event to present the “We Campania” project, an outreach to American tourism agents and tour operators that had the chance to meet with authorities, hotel owners and representatives from the tourism sector of Campania.

“We Campania” is also a publication and a website, presenting the small historical boroughs of the region to the operators whose customers are looking forward to new and exciting ways of discovering Italy.  
In a very convivial and informal set-up, a recurrent feature of the most recent events at ENIT since the appointment of Eugenio Magnani as Director, American representatives of the tourism sector could sit at a table with the Italian guests and network, while nibbling on Italian delicacies and sipping on fine wines. 

Alfredo Aurilio, President of the Provincial Tourism Board of Caserta, was present at the event and explained the philosophy behind “We Campania” to i-Italy: “Our goal is to promote destinations such as Caserta, Salerno, the Baia Domizia coast and the Cilento area. These areas are exceptional and they have a quality-price ratio that is hard to find anywhere else in Italy.” 

Talking about the reciprocal admiration between Americans and people from Campania, Aurilio mentioned the very recent America’s Cup, which reached its conclusion in Naples: “It was a great success, a great celebration of Naples and Campania as a whole that Americans honored us with.” 

More on the topic, Aurilio told i-Italy about the special connection between Naples and New York, both located on the 41st parallel: “The greatest similarity I found so far is the people’s open-mindedness. We hope to welcome more and more American tourists to Campania, not just to Naples. It’s very exciting to be here and to talk about our region, which will be even easier to reach from June 1st, when Meridiana Eurofly will launch a new direct flight route from New York to Naples.”

Amilcare Troiano, President of the National Park of Cilento and Vallo di Diano, was also present at the event. He gave a speech about the peculiarities of the park, the largest protected area in Italy, which was first designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve Site, then in 1998 was inscripted in the organization’s list of World Heritage Sites, together with the Archeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula.

Anne Masters, President at Travel Italy Now, told i-Italy how useful she deemed such a meeting occasion: “I have talked to some wonderful hotel owners,” she commented. 

The event was a very special chance to get acquainted with new touristic destinations to propose to customers who want to travel to Campania but have already visited the most well known areas of the country: “Everybody wants to go to Italy. People who have been there before are interested in seeing places that are more authentic than say the Amalfi Coast, now so crowded and touristy. I believe places like Salerno, Paestum and the Cilento National Park are marvelous, less expensive and more real.”