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News and Insights

The rise of armchair tourism.

April 8, 2020

It was Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin who once said: “There are decades where nothing happens, and then there are weeks where decades happen.” And there can be little doubt that these past few weeks have felt like several decades for the travel and tourism industry as a landscape nobody could have imagined is now a reality.

Across the globe, destinations and countries are closed to overseas visitors; airlines have grounded either all or the vast majority of their aircraft, cruise lines have confined their fleets to port and hotels and resorts have placed their properties on pause.

Arguably, no market sector has been hit as hard by the Covid-19 pandemic as the tourism and hospitality industries. In the United States, 701,000 jobs were lost last week because of the virus and it is estimated that 50% of those jobs were from the tourism and hospitality sector. In the United Kingdom, the Foreign and Commonwealth office extended its advice against travelling overseas for an “indefinite period.”

The challenge for the sector is a horribly simple one. How do you keep the idea and desire to travel alive when travel is prohibited in such an unimaginable way?

If history has taught us one thing, it is that humans are incredibly innovative when times are at their toughest. And, with the Covid-19 crisis and all its challenges for the travel and hospitality sector, we are seeing travel professionals and travel brands showing incredible, innovative initiatives to keep the travel dream alive for many.  It is known as armchair travel and it is surprisingly successful.

Many travel brands and destinations are working on the premise that if the travel consumer can’t come to us we will come to the travel consumer. This week Viking Cruises launched a digital platform in a bid to “bring the world to its guests” at home while the Coronavirus pandemic continues to grip the globe.

The cruise line said Viking.TV would “provide enriching cultural content and livestreaming video experiences from around the world”, with live content from “experts, cultural partners and notable individuals.” Elsewhere, Visit Scotland’s content team, working from their own homes, created a short film inviting previous visitors from near and far to share their favourite memories of Scotland. The heart-warming film asks people to dream about visiting now, but to travel later.

Switzerland’s tourist board decided to keep their destination front of mind by giving users on social media a slice of “Switzerland from afar,” stunning pictures and videos of the destination accompanied by hashtags like #neverstopdreaming and #staystrong to bolster morale.

The evidence now is that many tourist boards that have any experiences or attractions that can be viewed virtually, or if there is the ability to create content that could create this illusion, are using this approach to encourage future visits.

A great example of this is the Vienna Tourist Board who have a dedicated page on their website promoting virtual experiences in the city.  The page states that: “You don’t have to leave home to experience the sparkling magnificence of Vienna’s museums and sights. Come with us on a virtual voyage of discovery through the collections and rooms of world-famous Viennese institutions like the Albertina, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace and many other extraordinary places”.

South African Tourism released a video showcasing the destination with the message, “Don’t travel now so you can travel later” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urnp9YJeDN4 which amplifies what they are saying on social media #MeetSouthAfricaLater in a bid to inspire visits at a later date.

Travel writers are playing their part too in this bid to keep the desire to travel alive in the hearts and minds of the travelling public currently in lockdown. Travel editor and commentator Simon Calder now does regular Twitter polls called “Travel Icons” asking people to vote on everything from best waterfall, to best rail journey, best island and best bridge.

Meanwhile, Conde Nast Traveller have launched Little Black Book which is an initiative to “shine a light on all the places we can’t get to right now, but which are truly special and globally gorgeous.” As part of the initiative, readers are invited to send in their best travel insights and most extraordinary experiences.

No one knows how long the Coronavirus pandemic will last or, indeed, what the post pandemic world will look like. But one thing is certain, destinations and travel brands can keep the magic and inspiration of travel alive for now – even if it is virtually, from the armchair.

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Armchair Travel: 16 Ways To Travel The World From Home

Got the wanderlust but you’re not able to travel anywhere at the moment? That’s okay – you can become an armchair traveler and explore all the places you want from the comfort of your bed.

You’ll need a computer or a smartphone, a good internet connection, and an idea of a place you want to explore. Nothing else is required for armchair travel, and if your interest is peaked, you can read all about armchair travel right here in this detailed guide!

What Is Armchair Travel?

Armchair travel is kind of like a staycation, but instead of exploring the local attractions, you don’t even have to leave the house. It’s discovering new places from the comfort of your chair, hence the term armchair travel.

It can include anything from looking over photos from your past trips to spending hours on Google Earth, walking around the streets of a city you’ve never been to. It’s pretty much just detaching yourself from your current surroundings and immersing yourself in things related to a different country so that for a moment you actually feel like you are there.

It’s as simple as reading a book about Paris while listening to Edith Piaf and eating a croissant.

16 Ways To Travel The World From Home

Technology has come far enough to allow us to travel the world from the comfort of your own home. Well, not quite, but it’s almost there – you can explore the streets of any country in the world from the comfort of your bedroom, you can learn about the best restaurants, and you can even do virtual tours of museums and other famous attractions – you just have to zoom in enough on the world map. That’s the beauty of living in the age of virtual reality and 360-degree images.

I’m just getting started, and here are even more armchair travel ideas that will help you explore your dream destination from home!

Read Travel Blogs

Just because you can’t hop on an airplane and head to a new destination doesn’t mean you can’t learn about it and explore it. Reading travel blogs is a good way to explore new countries through the eyes and lenses of other travelers.

It’s a form of virtual travel that allows you to draw from other people’s experiences. The key is to find a travel blogger you can relate to and whose content you enjoy reading. Immerse yourself in their content, and sooner than you know it, you’ll become an expert on a destination you’ve never even visited.

There are thousands of travel blogs run by people from all around the world, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find at least one that you enjoy.

Virtually Explore US National Parks

Most US National Parks offer virtual tours that are absolutely perfect for an armchair traveler. You can explore any national park you want from the comfort of your home, and you can even peek inside museums and other unique attractions that the national parks have.

Of course, it’s not the same as reaping the benefits of a hot spring inside a national park, but it’s a great way to explore nature and get to know more about the national parks. There’s also the added benefit of not having to deal with snakes, bugs, and the changing weather that’s so common in the NPs.

Head to the Google Arts & Culture website to see all the 52 national parks and historic sites from the US that have made their collections available for digital exploration. You can also see loads of other famous attractions from countries all over the world here, but more details on that later.

Read A Travel-Related Book

If you’re a bookworm, this is the easiest way to become an armchair traveler. Find some travel-related books that you enjoy reading and allow yourself to live in their worlds for the next few days.

Also, a travel-related book can be anything. It could be the autobiography of your favorite artist who recounts all the places life has taken him to, a proper travel guide to a different country, or even a fiction novel set in a foreign country.

Travel guides and coffee table books related to travel are the safest options if you’re not an avid reader. From travel guides through the US to detailed exploration of Italy’s best beaches – there are countless travel books out there, and you just need to search for one that’s about the destination you’re most interested in.

Those who prefer fiction have even more options. I can’t help myself and I have to recommend Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series – the popular crime novels are set in Norway, primarily Oslo, and the detailed descriptions of the city’s top sights will truly transport you to the Nordics for a moment.

Listen To Travel Podcast

Not a big fan of reading or watching TV? Put on a travel podcast then and listen to other people recount the details of their latest trips. You’ll hear some fun and interesting stories for sure, but you may also learn about the inconveniences that might arise should you choose to travel to the same destinations.

We Travel There is a great podcast hosted by Lee Huffman. He interviews locals from all around the world, so every episode is about a different city. The local attractions and best places to visit are usually highlighted in each episode, making this podcast worth checking out even when you’re planning a travel itinerary.

Where To Go is also a great podcast, mostly because it’s hosted by the team behind DK Eyewitness travel guides. They’re some of the best travel guides out there, and the podcast episodes truly give them a run for their money.

Watch Travel Vlogs On Youtube

There are countless travel vloggers trying to make a living by doing the one thing they love most – traveling. You can support them and help them make their dreams come true by consuming their content and exploring the different countries of the world from the comfort of your own couch.

Finding a travel vlogger you like shouldn’t be too challenging, especially with so many different options out there. The key is to find a person you genuinely enjoy watching, otherwise, you won’t be able to focus on the travel destinations!

You can also find live camera streams on YouTube from countries all over the world. They usually include short snippets from various cameras, but it’s a great way to get a glimpse of distant landscapes and everyday life in foreign countries in just a few minutes. Plus, if you see a stream that you particularly like, you can always just find that specific live camera and refer to it whenever you want.

Enroll in A Travel-Related Course

If you still enjoy learning and you’ve particularly interested in travel, why not enroll in a travel-related course. Working on yourself and furthering your education is always a good thing, and you never know what opportunities may present themselves after you’ve completed the course.

I’m not saying enroll in a five-year college course about tourism, but you can take various online and offline courses on a myriad of topics relating to travel. The best way to get started is to get acquainted with all the different diplomas and certificates that are relevant to the tourism industry.

There are dozens of them, and there are many ways to earn them, from attending free online courses to enrolling in MBA degree programs.

Learn what it takes to become a travel agent, get a certificate that allows you to be a tour guide in your hometown, or complete a flight attendant training program. There are countless travel-related courses you can take, and you just need to see which ones interest you the most. This can also increase your chances of getting a job with one of the travel companies if that’s something you are interested in.

Additionally, you can also enroll in language-related courses. They usually include learning about the culture, literature, and history of the country whose language you’re learning, plus learning a new language is always a great idea.

Cook Your Favorite Dishes From Around The World

Exploring a new country means exploring its cuisine and getting to know all of its different flavors. So, if you’re feeling like traveling somewhere but you can’t actually go to that country, you can try to make it – or at least a tiny bit of it – in your own kitchen.

Turn to YouTube or one of a million different recipe websites, and find a dish you enjoy from the cuisine of the country you want to visit. Tacos will immediately fill the room with staple smells from South America, a good curry can never not remind you of India, and sushi is entirely self-explanatory.

So, if you can’t go on a trip right this minute but you’re desperate to at least feel like you’re traveling, just make your entire kitchen smell like a street full of food vendors from that country!

Watch TV Shows Related To Travel

Sometimes it’s enough for a show to be filmed at the right location for it to become extremely popular. Emily in Paris proved that – despite the fact that the show was criticized for a number of different things, it remained extremely popular and mostly because of the fact that it’s filmed in Paris.

People love to tune in to see Lily Collins strolling down the cobblestone alleys of Montmartre and enjoying croissants with a fabulous view of the Eiffel Tower, and I have to admit I’m also guilty of binging both seasons.

It doesn’t have to be a show about one specific city – there are countless travel shows that will satisfy your wanderlust for a moment, and many of them feature a different city or country in every episode. Put on some of Anthony Bourdain’s classics – No Reservations and Parts Unkown are still some of the best shows that combine food and travel!

The Grand Tour is another gem that covers remote destinations from around the world, and it’s particularly interesting for car lovers. But you don’t have to be into cars to appreciate the humor of Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond, and you certainly don’t need to know anything about vehicles to admire the spectacular landscapes that are featured in the episodes of this humorous travel show.

Watch Travel Movies

If you don’t want to commit to an entire TV show, you can just put on a travel movie. Into The Wild is a textbook example of a travel movie, and probably the best-known film in the genre. But a travel movie can be almost anything, as long as it’s set in the place that you’re yearning to visit.

I get the urge to travel to Sicily whenever I watch Godfather, and I doubt anyone would consider that a travel movie. But the beautiful landscapes that Al Pacino escapes to are so fascinating that, for a moment, it’s entirely possible to forget you’re watching a movie about mobsters.

The entire Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight trilogy showcases the beauty of spectacular European cities – Vienna, Paris, and Greece, in that order. Mamma Mia also depicts the beauty of Croatian and Greek islands, and it’s a great film to put on if you’re dreaming about a beach vacation.

Wild, starring Reese Whitherspoon, follows an inexperienced hiker setting out on the Pacific Crest Trail. The entire movie was shot on location, so it features the actual highlights of the iconic US long-distance hiking trail.

Go On A Virtual Tour of World’s Famous Museums

Some of the most famous museums in the entire world offer free virtual tours, and you should take advantage of that. J Paul Getty Museum, London’s Natural History Museum, and Musée d’Orsay in Paris have all made their collections available for virtual exploration.

Head to Google Arts & Culture again to go through the collections of these museums. You can even browse the various digital collections they have by genre or time period, so finding a collection curated specifically for you is easier than ever.

Learn A New Language

Learning an entirely new language is the best form of armchair travel. Not only does it get you closer to the culture of a country you’re fascinated by, but it’s also a way of developing a new skill that you can use for the rest of your life.

Learning a new language isn’t exactly the easiest thing you can do to satisfy your wanderlust, but it’s certainly the most useful one. You’ll particularly be happy you took up that happy if you manage to travel to the country whose native language you’ve mastered!

Also, keep in mind that learning a new language usually includes learning about the history and culture of that country, as well as reading a few books written by the nation’s most prominent writers. So, you’re not just learning how to talk to locals on your next trip, but you’re also getting a complete guide to the most important landmarks and attractions of the country you choose!

Plan Your Next Trip

Do you already have a destination in mind for your next trip? Then why not start planning it right now. You don’t have to purchase airplane tickets if you’re not sure when you’ll be able to go, but it’s a good idea to start researching other details that will come in handy during your trip.

Look at hotels and AirBnBs to see where you would like to stay and be sure to check out all the top tourist attractions and things to do at the destination. You can even make little maps for any future trip, and you can refer to the map when you actually arrive at that destination.

If you often go on road trips, you already know just how much planning goes into them, if you want things to go smoothly. You can get a head start on your next trip right now – it will get you excited about the trip, plus you can plan out a good chunk of the road trip.

Reminisce About Your Past Trips

Nothing can transport you through time and place quite like a personal photograph. Blow the dust off your online albums and take the time to go through all the 2365 photos you took on that trip to Rio de Janeiro. It can’t be just me that takes a million photos wherever I’m in a new city, and it can’t just be me that never looks at them again.

Take the time to go through the old photos and choose your favorites. You can even print them out if you like and create a travel collage to hang on a wall. Or you can just turn them into a throwback post.

You can also use this opportunity to make room in your phone for photographs you’ll take on your upcoming trips. Delete any blurry shots, images you don’t like, or images that you have a dozen copies of, and create some space for the photographs of places you’re yet to visit!

Create A Travel Scrapbook

Now that we all have amazing cameras in our pockets, it seems like we’re always taking photos, but never taking the time to go through them. Do you remember going through your childhood albums, and how happy you’d be when you saw that one photo you have a great memory of? Or when you looked at images from your travels as a kid?

You can still do that now, even if you’re a full-blown adult. You can even create an album if you want, but a travel scrapbook is a bit more fun. Go through the photos of the last (or any) place you visited, and select the ones you like the most and you want to have in your travel scrapbook.

If you need some travel inspiration, why not dedicate a few pages to every destination you visited. Print out your favorite photos with your friends and family, but also of the landmarks you liked and any places that stood out. Put all the photos in the scrapbook, and be sure to write little captions beneath the photos.

If you do go through with this, two decades from now, when your travel memories start to fade, you’ll be thrilled every time you lay eyes on your little travel scrapbook.

Play A Travel-Themed (Board) Game

Why not try a travel-themed board game to satisfy your itch for a quick trip? Trekking The World is one of the best-selling board games out there, and it’s great for families and friend groups of up to five people. You play the game by racing to visit as many countries in the world as you can and you collect souvenirs along the way. It’s extremely fun, and a great way to learn about some of the most popular destinations in the world.

The World Game is a travel-themed card game for up to five players. It tests your knowledge of geography by asking you to name the capitals of countries, point them out on a map, or guess their flag. It’s a fun card game, but only if you’re into geography.

It’s worth noting that board games aren’t the only types of games you can play that are related to travel. If you’re into gaming, you’ve got even more options when it comes to armchair travel! Many recent AAA games are set in existing cities, and most of those open worlds are incredibly detailed and pretty true to life.

Not all the details will be identical, but it’s important to point out that the reconstruction of Notre Dame will be done with the help of Ubisoft’s drawings that they used to recreate the iconic church in their Assassin’s Creed Unity game.

You can walk through the streets of London, New York, San Francisco, Paris, Tokyo, and many other cities if you’ve got a computer that can run newer AAA games. If not, just try Geouesser – the online game is one of the best things for armchair travel, especially if you want to explore places off the beaten path.

Socialize With Fellow Travel Enthusiasts on Social Media

If all else fails, turn to social media. Go on Reddit, Instagram, or even Facebook and find a group of like-minded travel enthusiasts with whom you can share travel stories and photos. This is also a great way to meet new people and make friends, and you could potentially travel with those people sometime.

But it’s a way of armchair traveling that only extroverts will consider, so it’s definitely not for everyone. You could be one of those people that lurk around the groups and forums, taking in all the stories and images, but not sharing anything with strangers.

About the Author Anna Timbrook

Anna is the co-owner of expert world travel and can't wait to share her travel experience with the world. With over 54 countries under her belt she has a lot to write about! Including those insane encounters with black bears in Canada.

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Out of the Centre

Savvino-storozhevsky monastery and museum.

Zvenigorod's most famous sight is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, which was founded in 1398 by the monk Savva from the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, at the invitation and with the support of Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod. Savva was later canonised as St Sabbas (Savva) of Storozhev. The monastery late flourished under the reign of Tsar Alexis, who chose the monastery as his family church and often went on pilgrimage there and made lots of donations to it. Most of the monastery’s buildings date from this time. The monastery is heavily fortified with thick walls and six towers, the most impressive of which is the Krasny Tower which also serves as the eastern entrance. The monastery was closed in 1918 and only reopened in 1995. In 1998 Patriarch Alexius II took part in a service to return the relics of St Sabbas to the monastery. Today the monastery has the status of a stauropegic monastery, which is second in status to a lavra. In addition to being a working monastery, it also holds the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

Belfry and Neighbouring Churches

Located near the main entrance is the monastery's belfry which is perhaps the calling card of the monastery due to its uniqueness. It was built in the 1650s and the St Sergius of Radonezh’s Church was opened on the middle tier in the mid-17th century, although it was originally dedicated to the Trinity. The belfry's 35-tonne Great Bladgovestny Bell fell in 1941 and was only restored and returned in 2003. Attached to the belfry is a large refectory and the Transfiguration Church, both of which were built on the orders of Tsar Alexis in the 1650s.  

To the left of the belfry is another, smaller, refectory which is attached to the Trinity Gate-Church, which was also constructed in the 1650s on the orders of Tsar Alexis who made it his own family church. The church is elaborately decorated with colourful trims and underneath the archway is a beautiful 19th century fresco.

Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is the oldest building in the monastery and among the oldest buildings in the Moscow Region. It was built between 1404 and 1405 during the lifetime of St Sabbas and using the funds of Prince Yury of Zvenigorod. The white-stone cathedral is a standard four-pillar design with a single golden dome. After the death of St Sabbas he was interred in the cathedral and a new altar dedicated to him was added.

Under the reign of Tsar Alexis the cathedral was decorated with frescoes by Stepan Ryazanets, some of which remain today. Tsar Alexis also presented the cathedral with a five-tier iconostasis, the top row of icons have been preserved.

Tsaritsa's Chambers

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is located between the Tsaritsa's Chambers of the left and the Palace of Tsar Alexis on the right. The Tsaritsa's Chambers were built in the mid-17th century for the wife of Tsar Alexey - Tsaritsa Maria Ilinichna Miloskavskaya. The design of the building is influenced by the ancient Russian architectural style. Is prettier than the Tsar's chambers opposite, being red in colour with elaborately decorated window frames and entrance.

At present the Tsaritsa's Chambers houses the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Among its displays is an accurate recreation of the interior of a noble lady's chambers including furniture, decorations and a decorated tiled oven, and an exhibition on the history of Zvenigorod and the monastery.

Palace of Tsar Alexis

The Palace of Tsar Alexis was built in the 1650s and is now one of the best surviving examples of non-religious architecture of that era. It was built especially for Tsar Alexis who often visited the monastery on religious pilgrimages. Its most striking feature is its pretty row of nine chimney spouts which resemble towers.

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Cinematic, Undiscovered, Cilento

In this less-traveled region of Italy, the scenery is spectacular, the water wine-dark. It has sun and sea, along with important Greek ruins, wild nature, curious legends and medieval religious sanctuaries.

The baroque Certosa di Padula, a former monastery and one of the largest in Europe, was inhabited by monks who kept a vow of silence. Credit... Francesco Lastrucci for The New York Times

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By Nina Burleigh

• Published May 21, 2024 Updated May 24, 2024

From a piazza in the town of Castellabate on the Cilento coast of Italy, you may lift your eyes over the rim of your cappuccino and drink in a panorama of sky and Mediterranean Sea from Salerno to the Gulf of Policastro. Looking way, way down, a fruited plain of vineyards, lemon trees and white fig stretches to the flanks of green mountains decked with wisps of vapor.

Standing at the same point in 1811, Napoleon’s brother in law, appointed King of Naples in the early 19th century, uttered words that the town has engraved on a wall near the castle: “Qui non si muore.” Roughly, Here you do not die.

Of course, people do die in the Cilento, a region south of the Amalfi Coast. But they also live longer than most, thanks to the Mediterranean Diet, first studied in these parts. It is more accurate to say that here, eternal life is a more appealing proposition.

Last spring, I decided to explore Italy’s second largest national park, the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park, which encompasses both sea and mountains, and its environs, on foot. I made the town of Acciaroli my home base, from an Airbnb with a bedroom window that opened on the port. My goal was to “staccare la spina,” or unplug, in Italian. It was early May, no summer crowds. At dawn, cooing doves and trilling Eurasian blackbirds woke me. I swam in the cold, silvery bay, grabbed a caffe macchiato at one of the port bars, donned hiking boots and, armed with a guidebook called “Secret Campania,” and a trekking app called Komoot , set off in my rented manual Fiat Panda.

One of the great things about Italy, for non-Italians anyway, is how easily one slides into the sense of being in a movie. Driving the Via Bacco e Cerere east from the sea into the Alburni mountain, downshifting up switchbacks with puffy clouds casting shadows on towering white cliffs, I felt like Ms. James Bond.

The scenery is cinematic, the views spectacular, the water wine-dark, but the Cilento is not as internationally popular as the Italian playgrounds of Capri and Positano. It is a rather well-kept secret. Here the same sun and sea can be had at a fraction of the cost, along with important Greek ruins, wild nature, curious legends and medieval religious sanctuaries.

Americans are rare in these parts. Many of the residents don’t speak English. A raffish vibe appeals to a certain type: Ernest Hemingway hung out with fishermen around here. After World War II, the American Army doctor Ancel Keys stumbled into the region, bought an old villa and devoted his life to studying the salubrious effects on the heart of a diet of olive oil, fish and fresh vegetables. There’s a museum devoted to the Mediterranean Diet he made famous in the fishing hamlet of Pioppi.

It has been wild country for a long, long time. After the fall of Rome, the coastal populations here dwindled. Wild boar, wolves and bear retook the mountains. In the Middle Ages, Christian hermits and monks moved in. Long into the 19th century, the region retained a savage reputation. Local criminals became heroic “Briganti” during fighting over the unification of Italy, then formed the mafia that has run southern Italy since.

The Italic warrior tribe Lucani were the first recorded inhabitants of the Cilento (the name comes from the Latin “Cis Alentum,” meaning this side of the Alentum River, which flows through Campania). Ancient Greeks colonized the coast, and their stupendous Doric temples at Paestum, which inspired writers like Goethe and 18th-century architects across Europe, are among the best preserved in the Mediterranean. The museum in the ancient city of Paestum displays Lucanian tomb paintings, paint still bright, mute testaments to the mystery of a gone religion involving sphinxes, female guides to the underworld and male warriors.

Buffalo country

My trekking plan always had an ulterior motive: to justify gorging on Cilento food and wine. The region produces some of the finest basics of Italian cuisine. Extra virgin olive oil obtained from oak-sized trees; fresh seafood; homemade pasta and sauces; buffalo, cow and goat cheeses; and of course pizza, all washed down with the local rosso .

The road to Paestum is lined with shops selling mozzarella from the milk of Asian buffalo, possibly first introduced to Italy by the Greeks. On a rainy afternoon, I joined a tour of the Tenuta Vannulo , an organic mozzarella farm, where men in white coats transformed milk from 200 buffalo into creamy balls of cheese beloved by foodies everywhere. The farm itself is mechanized to a crazy extent: The animals are trained to voluntarily enter a self-serve Swedish-made milking machine. After six minutes they exit to a reward of forage and an automated buffalo massage machine.

The Cilento and Vallo di Diano Park covers 699 square miles of beaches, cliffs, emerald vales, river gorges and mountain meadows, with plenty of well-marked trails. I walked about five miles a day in different zones of the park. I regretted that I didn’t have time to cycle just a leg of the 373-mile “via Silente” bike path that circuits the park with nightly stops at various hamlets.

I started my hiking along the water. A sinuous, rutted coastal road links the fishing towns of the Cilento coast and a knee-high guardrail is all that lies between a car and hundreds of feet of air above the sea. The cliffs inspired tales of nymphs who seduced sailors to come close to the rocks where they shipwrecked. If the sailors didn’t respond, the nymphs would dash themselves on the rocks for unrequited love.

An easy, flat walk from the port of San Marco Castellabate, through olive trees and native Mediterranean shrubs, leads to the site of one of the mermaid legends, Punta Licosa. Leukosia was one of three sirens who, in “The Odyssey,” tried to enchant Ulysses and his men. The great voyager had his men stuff their ears with wax and he tied himself to the mast to resist their song. For failing to seduce the sailors, the sea god Poseidon turned Leukosia into the rocky cliff that bears a version of her name.

A trickier walk, over a steep rock path, led up from the bay at Palinuro, a town of countless gelaterias and restaurants that in summer mostly serve vacationing Italians, around a mountain to a point overlooking the Grotta Azzura (blue grotto), a major draw for cave divers.

Often enough, I had trouble finding trail heads despite Komoot (which kept me on course once I started). One afternoon I wandered for two hours in a light rain around a hilltop hamlet called Ogliastro Cilento, seeking in vain the entrance to an evocative-sounding walk called Sentiero dell’Albero Centenario (path of the 100-year-old trees). I never found it, but I did wander several miles through olive groves, trailed for part of the way by two friendly farm dogs.

A valley of orchids

Deeper in the Alburni range, the hamlet of Sassano, an assemblage of biscuit-colored houses with red roofs planted on the flank of Monte San Giacomo, is the gateway to the Valle delle Orchidee. In May, more than 100 species of wild orchids bloom in a microclimate. A few miles of easy walking wound through an astonishing spectacle of tiny pink, yellow, red and purple blossoms on single stems. These rare flowers proliferated like common dandelions as far as the eye could see.

I got lost driving to Sassano and pulled over at a caffe bar. A row of middle-aged men sat in a line of chairs under the awning in the morning sun like a 1940s photograph. This was Teggiano, my “Secret Campania” guidebook informed me, built around a medieval fortress with 25 towers, and home of one of the more peculiar Cilento legends: During a monthslong siege in the 15th century, Teggiano women supposedly breastfed soldiers to keep them vigorous.

On a plateau deep in the mountains, beyond a maze of farm roads, the baroque Certosa di Padula , a former monastery and one of the largest in Europe, is almost as unbelievable as the opera house in Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo.” Among its hidden gems is a library with a self-supporting spiral staircase from the 15th century and an 18th-century glazed earthenware floor in blue and emerald green.

For five centuries, Carthusian monks lived and died here, after committing to silent, solitary lives. They only spoke once a week, on Sunday walks in the woods. On the Sunday I visited, the compound was ringing with Italian families enjoying a sunny afternoon outing. Laughing children played hide and seek in the shadows of arched arcades while elders sipped espresso and Aperol spritzes at tables nearby.

The Certosa is not Padula’s only tour-worthy attraction:the Joe Petrosino House Museum honors the life of a hero New York police officer, Joe Petrosino. An Italian emigrant who grew up in New York City, he fought the mafia in the early 20th century, and died in Italy when he came over to collar a New York mafia boss and was assassinated by the villains.

During my five days in the Cilento, I did not staccare la spina entirely: I lived by my navigational apps, Google translate, a birdcall identifier, and of course my iPhone playlist. But I returned to Rome in muddy shoes, with a sweatshirt that retained the scent of the buffalo farm and a new appreciation for the backcountry of the pulchra terra that is Italy.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

An earlier version of this article included an incorrect translation of the Italian word caseificio. It means cheese factory, not homemade.

An earlier version of this article misidentified where the words “Qui non si muore” are displayed in the town of Castellabate. They are on a plaque on a wall near the castle, not on the town hall. It also provided an incorrect translation of the Latin words “Cis Alentum,” which means this side of the Alento River, not the other side.

An earlier version of this article misidentified when Joe Petrosino, a New York City police officer, fought the mafia. It was in the early 20th century, not the mid 20th century.

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