paestum
On our first attempt to see the Paestum ruins, we realized that the site was much more expansive than we imagined and decided to return at an earlier time on another day. Part of the reason for our late arrival was that the train from Salerno (which is twice as fast as the bus) has a gap in service from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. Instead we just lounged at the beach which is about a 20 to 30 minute walk from the ruins, you can read more about the beach in “Spiaggia, Spiaggia, Spiaggia.” When we returned two days later we made sure to be on the 9:30 train and arrived before it got too hot, which was great because there is quite a bit of walking involved. Tickets to enter both the museum and the ruins are just €10 and can be purchased at the museum entrance. Laura and I definitely did not bring the best footwear, I would suggest closed toe shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty. Unlike the Colosseum, the Paestum ruins are not massive in density but in the breadth of space they take up. Visitors have almost complete access to tromp around, which was a great way to examine everything up-close without many barriers.
The ancient Greek ruins of Paestum have remained largely in tact. There are three temples of Doric style that look practically untouched and you can still clearly see the shape of several forums. The Greek colonists who built the city first named the area Poseidonia after Poseidon and after being conquered by Lucanians it was renamed Paistos, and after the Romans arrived the site received its current name. Fun fact: Paestum pre-dates Pompeii by approximately 500 years. As we walked around, I found myself yearning for one of those educational videos I used to fall asleep to in class where they mix footage of the existing site with dramatized reenactments of what life was like there. The best pieces in the museum were the painted tombstones, the display of different tools and weapons, and musings of how paint of all colors was created in that time. Paestum was fantastic, if I ever make it back I will definitely pay extra for the audio tour.
