Wednesday 17th September 2025 – Paestum, Italy

 

As it was the day before we take the ferry to Greece, we thought that we should see some Greek archaeology. To be fair, most of what remains at Paestum is Roman but it does have three of the best preserved Greek temples in the classical world.
Our short drive from the campsite to the archaeological site took past an impressive and long stretch of the walls of Paestum – they total 4,522 m in length. We found a reasonably priced parking place and walked round to the entrance on a pedestrianised road (unless you are an Italian driver, in which case you ignore the signs). The ticket covered the museum and site but we decided to see the site first, hoping to avoid the worst heat of the day – it was 27°C already.
There was a major road that ran through the city and this divided the sacred area with its three temples (and other temples, shrines and altars) from the residential area. We walked up the sacred side and returned through the residential area. We started at the Temple of Athena (Greek – 500 BC), passing the Ekklesiasterion (Greek), the Amphitheatre (Roman), parts of the Agora (Greek), the Temple of Peace (Roman), Curia (Roman), Baths (Roman) and the Asklepieion (Greek). We then arrived at the second, largest and best preserved, Greek temple. The Temple of Neptune (460 BC) has massive golden columns and even second storey columns giving a huge height to the building. It is difficult to imagine the temple in ancient Greek times when all the stonework was plastered and painted in bright colours – red, blue, yellow and green.
Next to the Temple of Neptune is the Temple of Hera, the third Greek temple and the oldest, being completed in 560 BC. It is simpler in construction than the other temples but is still beautiful.
The residential area would have been occupied by the wealthy and, with one exception, all of the visible remains are Roman. No doubt, remains of Greek houses lie under the Roman ones and, perhaps, in the unexcavated areas of the city. There were many private baths and a number of swimming pools in the Roman villas.
We decided to have a full meal before we visited the museum and tried a restaurant on the street outside the site. It wasn’t even 14:00 but we were told that they had stopped serving food. We dismissed another restaurant as it only served pizza and settled for ‘Kalos’, which was very close to the museum entrance. It was excellent – the Freschezza D'Orto (ricotta-stuffed ravioli with very finely sliced courgettes, grated lemon and olive oil sauce, served with fresh mint) was superb. A highly recommended restaurant and surprisingly good considering its location in such a tourist spot.
The museum is quite small but very interesting and they are obviously getting close to opening more exhibition space. Much on display was devoted to Greek temples further north, close to the River Sele.
Photos: The Temple of Athena; The Temple of Neptune; Inside the Temple of Neptune showing the second storey of the building; The Temple of Hera with the Temple of Neptune in the background; A very large swimming pool in one of the fancy Roman villas that covered an area of 2,800 sq. m.; The Neptune mosaic in another one of the villas; The museum has a display of part of the Temple of Hera from the River Sele, showing the metopes (stone carvings) that adorned it; This is a ritual lamp found in that temple.