Padula Charterhouse (Certosa di Padula) Tours and Activities

The Tour Certosa of Padula and Joe Petrosino is a full-day itinerary in the Vallo di Diano that will guide you to discover one of the main Carthusian monasteries of Italy in Padula, the birthplace of Joe Petrosino. We start our tour at the Certosa di San Lorenzo, also known as the Certosa di Padula. The monastery, founded in 1306 by the San Severino family, is the largest in Italy, with an area of ​​51,500 m2 and has the largest cloister in the world built between 1500 and 1700, with an area of ​​12,000 m2. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 and inside you can appreciate the library, reachable with a wonderful helical staircase, the large cloister, the monumental elliptical staircase, the prior's quardo. The whole Certosa di Padula is surrounded by the park and wonderful gardens. Lunch Included After the walk inside the Certosa di San Lorenzo, you will be our guests for a typical lunch in a restaurant. In the early afternoon we visit Joe Petrosino's childhood home, today an appreciable museum. Known as the Italian Sherlock Holmes, not everyone knows that Joe Petrosino was born in Padula in 1860. He then moved to New York City and joined the New York Police Department in 1883 and was promoted by President Roosevelt to investigative sergeant in charge of the NYPD's homicide division. When he was promoted to lieutenant, he investigated the criminal activities of the mafia. His investigations are recognized by all as heroic deeds, so much so that several books, screenplays and films have been dedicated to him, as well as a park in New York City. During his investigations on the mafia, in Sicily in Palermo, he was assassinated in 1909. At the end of the day our Tour Certosa di Padula and Joe Petrosino also ends, when we will take you back to the Hotel. A tour not to be missed in a pleasant combination of Culture, History and Legality.

The guided tour in Padula will focus in the monastery, the largest in Italy and among the largest in Europe. The Certosa di San Lorenzo, it is a very large monastery, with 320 rooms and halls. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998. The visit starts from the entrance hall with the cloister of the guesthouse and then enter the church and admire the decorations in Neapolitan baroque style with golden stucco, majolica floors and marble altars. You will remain open-eyed seeing the wooden choir of the Fathers with 16th-century wooden inlays and then go through the hall of the bells, the Chapter and the Treasury. The tour continues with the view of the great refectory hall with the fresco of the Cana wedding of Francesco d'Elia and the magnificent kitchen with a large central hood and decorated with majolica tiles. The tour continues by visiting the cloister of the prior and the large central cloister until you arrive at the end of the tour to the monumental elliptical staircase