After spending the night in Salerno we had another early morning. But before departing on a day of touring and beaching, we had breakfast on the roof of our hotel with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and ocean! Our tour guide met us around 7:45 and we headed to Paestum for the day.
Paestum was the site of an ancient Greek, then Roman settlement. It was a sizable site dominated by three enormous Greek temples (of Hera, Athena and Neptune). Paestum is named for the Greek god of the ocean, Poseidon, because it is right on the coast. We spent a while exploring the site, walking along the ancient streets trying to picture what it looked like in its heyday. Though Paestum is most well known for the temples, there are remains of homes, a theater, a pool, and shops among other things. Even in the morning sun, we were getting roasted so we were excited to visit the AIR CONDITIONED archaeological museum just next to the ancient city. Many of the artifacts in the museum came from the site, including frescos, ceramic jars, statues, etc.
Soon our group met up and headed back to the bus for a short ride to a nearby mozzarella farm. Yes, I do realize you don't grow mozzarella on a farm, but the water buffalos that make the cheese live there. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see the cheese making process, but after seeing the buffalos and other farm animals we had a lovely lunch on the shaded patio. I'm not sure I've ever had that much cheese in one sitting before. There were two types of buffalo mozzarella, smoked and regular, neither of which I cared for. They were too smokey and milky respectively and they were both very strong. We also tried a type of cheese made from cow milk, a cheese with spicy peppers, a smooth and creamy ricotta cheese paired with a marmalade (it was really good spread on bread), and some veggies including smoked eggplant, carrots, tomatoes with basil and of course some prosciutto. After ALL of that they brought out a cheesecake crumble kind of thing that was DELICIOUS!
We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on the beach by the Mediterranean. It was absolutely beautiful! The beach was very clean, we had a cabana with nice chairs, access to a bathroom, changing room and a restaurant for snacks and drinks. After a quick dip in the chilly water, we soaked up the sun, napped and hung out with friends. Tybee could take a few pointers from Italy...hah!
We had a light dinner at the restaurant before we left right at sunset. It made for a beautiful view before we headed back to Salerno for the night.
The next morning we got to sleep in and rest up for our next big adventure. We walked down along the waterfront before catching our train to Rome around lunch time.
So far Salerno has been my least favorite of the cities I have visited. The south of Italy has a much different feel to it then the north. The cities were much older (not like antiquity old, but outdated old), more run down and much dirtier. When I visited Naples in 2008, I remembered it being very similar to Salerno in those aspects. It was nice enough to visit, but there are other places I would recommend before spending time there.
More on Rome to come!! Until then, Ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment