The archaeological site Velia, the sea and the Cilento National Park.

Today an archaeological park with thousands of visitors every year, once a Mediterranean city founded by Phocaean colonies in an expanding Magna Graecia. Elea, its ancient name, rose on the cape you can still see today, as the coastline still lied further back and there were two ports.

It was this enviable position that made the fortune of this population that lived from trade with the East, so that even Rome had to acknowledge its administrative autonomy. The region’s wealth even meant naval power, a feared and highly regarded fleet thanks to its worthy missions during the Punic Wars

But in history Elea is best known as the home of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno. There where today luxuriant ancient olive trees cover the promontory and the agora with their shadow, long ago the Eleatic school evolved its main doctrine. By visiting the excavations you will immediately feel the emotion of being thrown in a culturally rich past.