Paestum - 12 October 2022

Slept better last night after a long day being tourists!

Took a few photos this morning of where we were parked. I’m sure you’d appreciate being under the green netting in the height of summer, but it just made Dave dark inside - was happy to leave. It also reminds us why we don’t like campsites - too many children - being - well children!

Back to me driving today - nearly 2 hours. It’s a bit like taking a hazard perception test - continually for as long as it takes! The little road up to the main road, we knew could be a problem, it’s narrow in places - not enough space for big vehicles to pass. I had to pull in, but made sure Tintin was outside to ensure Dave stayed intact! From there on it was mainly autostrada driving. Can’t quite work it out, today only cost €2.20!

It feels like we’re into different territory again, once we’d been around a big mountain (!) - we’re into the flat lands again.

We’re staying on yet another Agricamper in Paestum. Think it’s about €15 for the first night if you are an Agricamper member thereafter €25 a night. The gravel track to it is about a mile long! Wondered where we were going! A fairly unfriendly man told us where to park, pointed to the board then walked off. Later another man came and explained more - and later in the early evening came and gave us 6 fresh chicken eggs!  The main man, Giuseppe is in Istanbul selling their pomegranate products they make here. The reviews are correct - about the best pitches yet - a lot of money must have gone into this place. Each pitch has electric (pay more for), it’s own cold shower, your own chemical loo disposal, large size, plus there is a block of showers/loos/washing machine. There’s only one other family here. There’s a whole field of pomegranate trees, being sprayed with water. They have sheep running around, which fertilize the soil naturally!

We only rode for about 6 miles, but packed in a visit to the temples at Paestum, and a swim!

By 1pm we were there. Once again, a really miserable witch taking the money - was €24, if we wanted a guide book, would be another €6.

This place has some of the best preserved Greek temples outside of Greece.

The area includes a temple dedicated to Poseidon (the site was known as Poseidonia), the god to the sea, known to the Romans as Neptune (450BC), a temple to Athena, and the basilica, which historians believe to have been built in honour of Heres or Zeus. The site was created by the Greeks in the 6th century BC, and taken over by the Romans 200 years later, who changed the name.

The site was deserted from the 9th century and rediscovered in the 18th century, but most of it remained undiscovered until the 1950s.

There are three main temples at Paestum - the Temple of Hera (6th century BC) has 9 front columns, 18 side columns and 2 aisles divided by a row of columns.

The Temple of Ceres (6th century BC) has 6 fluted columns at the front, 13 lateral ones and an undivided cella (inner room). Dedicated to Athena.

The largest, Temple of Neptune (5th century BC) has 6 front columns, 14 side ones and is cella is divided into 3 aisles by 2 rows of 2 tier columns. It was probably dedicated to Apollo or Zeus.

Having already visited Pompeii - this site is quite similar, as in it too has a Forum, you can see where houses were, the bakery, the perfumery, the baths, the gardens, the shops, the prison, the hospital and an amphitheater. However, unlike Pompeii - hardly any visitors!

If you’ve ever wondered where our word for ecclesiastical comes from, apparently, the Ekklesiasterion was where the city assembly would meet, for debates and arguments. The name is linked to the Greek word “Ekklesia”, which means assembly, and the Latin word is “Ecclesia”, from which the word ecclesiastical comes.

After a couple of hours wandering around, we finished off in the museum. Most famously - it has the Tomba del Tuffatore (Diver’s Tomb), one of few remaining and best preserved Greek mural paintings from the 5th century BC. The image of the diver on the lid symbolizes the passage to the afterlife. Only read about this later - so glad I just happened to take a photo!

We thought the actual photo of a diver was pretty impressive too - Barbara, we thought of Hayward!

After that, it was off to the beach. On route we stopped off to stroke some cats - well only the older male was friendly!

The beach was nearly deserted. We ended up pushing our bikes down to the shore - probably safer? Was hard work!

Had to walk out quite a way before the sea became deeper - again, lovely temperature.

Had to laugh, at one point a fish jumped out the water right past Tintin’s nose! I had another fishy encounter too! The water was clear, don’t mind seeing the little ones - it’s the bigger ones that have me leaving sooner than I’d like!

Everything is closed down for the season and looks a little sad, the mini markets, gelatarias, restaurants, hotels - shame really - lovely temperature still - about 23° today - perfect for not getting sunburnt, but warm enough to be in shorts and t-shirts!

As there’s a washing machine, thought I’d catch up with laundry again - ha! Everything on the machine is rightly in Italian, even after I’d figured it out, there was no count down time wise, so kept going back to check - took about 2-1/2 hours in the end.

Mosquito wise, we thought we’d cracked it. Have been applying Avon skin so soft - a dry oil spray. Not supposed to be an insect repellent - but so many people swear by it, thought I’d give it a go. On top of that applied the local Autan insect repellent. Don’t think Tintin was bitten yesterday, but has been today, and I have the telltale red lumps appearing again - although not nearly as itchy.

We were sat out in our chairs (first time this trip) - but could see the little blighters everywhere. Could also hear them in Dave, Tintin killed two - so have to hope there aren’t anymore lurking!

We are in the Campania region of Italy - famous for its buffalo mozzarella - but where are all these buffalos?!

As I mentioned, we’d seen it for sale in Napoli - but if possible, I wanted to see it being made. Tintin has been doing research, sounds like it won’t happen - generally only for tours/groups - plus very mixed reviews - mainly saying staff are rude, and everything is overpriced…

Buffalo mozzarella is made from the milk of the domestic water buffalo, rather than from cows milk.

Mozzarella comes from the verb ‘mozzare’ which means to cut off - which refers to the making of the cheese as the large mass of curd is cut up by hand into smaller pieces.

It’s due to be raining in Italy tomorrow - don’t think there’s anywhere we can get to where it won’t be - so may scupper plans a little…

Still managing to get in about 10,000 steps a day. However, appreciate a bit of exercise won’t counteract our bad diet! Huge bowl of pasta for tea!