Tom`s travels: Paestum & Agropoli (29/09/2015)

I took the 8:37 train from Salerno train station after a 40 minute walk from the house. I reached Paestum train station, 30 minutes later and headed straight for the archaeological site. There is a beautiful countryside road sided by cypresses that seems to take you back to roman times. All around the archaeological site there's still the roman wall that used to surround the town, and well preserved too. I reached the museum where I bought the ticket, 3,50€ and headed for the ruins first. Built first as a Greek colony in the 6th century BC and named Poseidonia, the city was then conquered by the Lucans first and the Romans after who renamed it Paestum. At the entrance on the right side stand the beautiful and smallest of three temples. Traditionally attributed to Cereres, it is now thought to be dedicated to Athena instead. Though the smallest it is still amazing, with frieze and columns in the Doric style. Walking along the path I reached the circular Ekklesiasterion, the meeting place for the popular assembly and then a little further the roman Amphitheater 2/3 of which are still under the modern road. This was the place of the Greek agora first and then of the Roman forum. After the forum, finally the most important sites of Paestum: the two huge and beautiful temples both dedicated to Hera. The southernmost, the so called Basilica, is the oldest and dates from 530 BC and was built in the Doric style. Only a the front part of the Naos, the inner cell, is remaining. The other temple, also dedicated to Hera but originally thought to be dedicated to Neptune, built in 460 BC is the largest and most beautiful of all. Also built in the Doric style, but much different to the older one since this one has much larger columns, all evenly space and in even number: 6 on the short side (the other had 9 on the short side). Most of the impressive Naos is still standing though it was not permitted to go inside (but people still did without following the rules). After thoroughly admiring these impressive temples I walked back along the roman road, the Via Sacra, lined by roman houses and villas, built on top of older greek ones. I then headed inside the museum which contains all the amazing objects and artifacts that were recovered from the archaeological site and surrounding area. In addition to hundreds of beautifully decorated greek vases with scenes from daily life and war; the most amazing features were slabs of stone part of burial tombs richly decorated and frescoed with scenes of hunt, war etc. Nearly all where Lucanian, an Italic people that took over Paestum from the greeks; however there were also a few beautiful greek ones, the best of which was The Tomb of the Diver, which was not at the museum but hosted in Milan (and that I got to see when I went back to Milan), depicting a man diving into water (being it extremely important since it was the only archaic object in its entirety depicting a human figure). Since I was visiting and it was still midday I decided to walk to the town of Agropoli since the next train was only going to pass no earlier than 2pm. The distance was 10km however once I reached the town of Paestum, about 3km later, a bus headed to Agropoli was passing by so I stopped it and hopped on (ticket was 1,80€).
Once I reached the town I hopped off the bus and headed for the castle and old town. Once I reached the medieval gate climbing up a monumental stair, I decided to look for a place that served Pizza Agropolese, a type of pizzed served in a wicker basket. Unfortunately after checking out 5 pizzerias I was told they only served pizzas for dinner so I decided to settle for a small diner called Tavola Calda da Giusy which served some really good and super cheap dishes. I got a pasta with tomato sauce and mozzarella and a second dish with the Gató ( a type of potato and ham lasagne) plus a bottle of water, spent only 9 euros and felt definitely full. An american couple was passing by and I overheard them talking about getting pizzas so I asked them if they were and they answered positively so I told them that they wouldn't find pizzas anywhere for lunch so they, like me, settled in getting a nice meal in this place. After lunch I headed back through the medieval gate and into the old town. I walked around and along interesting medieval streets until I reached the highest point where the castle is located. The castle built first as a byzantine stronghold and then later rebuilt under Aragonese rule, was open and is used as a public park with several cultural events taking place inside it. The view from the walls was nice, with the Piana del Sele to the right and the Amalfi coast far ahead with the island of Capri at its end. After that I decided to head back down and walk to a nearby beach. Once I reached the port I saw the immense cliff on which the city was built, imagining the usefulness of such a natural defense. After a 30-40 minute walk I reached the Baia di Trentova to the southwest where there were a few people sleeping or relaxing. I set my towel and lay down to rest too. After a while I decided to change into my swim suit, that I brought with me, and take a dip into the sea. The water wasn't too cold and though slightly windy outside I was able to dry quite rapidly. Then the sun came out of the few clouds and it became really pleasant to lie there. At around 4 though I decided to start heading back into town to catch the 5:05 train. Once I reached the train station though I discovered that the train did not exist so I had to wait with a few people, typical trenitalia mess up, for the 5:56 train. I then reached Salerno 40 minutes later and took the metro back home.