Day 7: Paestum's Greek temples


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Europe » Italy » Campania
May 28th 2007
Published: May 28th 2007
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Monday, our last full day, was a daytrip to Paestum. Once again, we just barely missed a train, and had to wait an hour for the next. I was surprised that it was an hour and forty-five minute ride, but we didn't have to change trains in Salerno. The train we took seemed to stop at every little station along the way. So we arrived shortly after noon, and headed straight for lunch first. We found a fairly nice resaturant, though not too expensive. Paestum is supposed to have the best mozzerella-- there were several buffalo farms and processing plants nearby-- so we ordered an appetizer of mozzerella and prochiuto instead of the usual caprese. The mozzerella was so freesh that it was still making juices. It was a bit too watery for our tastes, but it was still good. Greg had plain fish and I had plain penne with tomato sauce. Nothing impressive, but good. The restaurnaat overlooked the archeological site, so it was neat to sit and eat with a view of the two big temples.

Paestum was a great site. It was a bit like a miniature Pompeii, but nothing was roped off. We could climb on top of anything to take pictures or just enjoy the view. Only the three main temples were blocked off. I was surprised that there was no scaffolding inside or around them at all. It made for great picturers. Some rain clouds were headed our way, but we had mostly sun with a good cooling breeze.

There were signs at most major areas, with complete text in English, so we felt like we didn't need a tour guide. I was surprised how few tourists were there at all. There was one group of Italian schoolchildren, but they left not too long after we arrived. Overall there couldn't have been more than 30 people total. There were twice that many lizzards, though. We were surprised that there were no officials or anyone except the guy at the entrance gate. The grass was completely unmowed, but the paths between areas was worn down enough to make a path. It was almost like how I would have expected the archeologists who discovered it would have seen. We didn't encounter any mosquitos, either.

We had seen everything in a little less than 2 hours when the rain started. So we threw on our jackets and headed to the museum. It was a laid out a bit confusingly, but they at least had plenty of signs in English. It was almost surprising to see so many things that had been found. They also had some original pieces of the temples that still had their paint remaining. I think the temples look better unpainted than the strange red and black deisigns.

We left Paestum at 5:00, but had to wait in the cold wind and rain until the 5:45 train. When we got back to Naples, we walked back to the recommended pizzeria we had seen the locals line up for out the door a few days ago. We got a tiny bit lost, but managed to find it. There was again a wait, but not more than 10 minutes. The place only makes two kinds of pizza: margherita or marinara. Everyone that I could see had ordered margharitas. Our pizzas came out very quickly. Greg said his was great, but mine had very little cheese, too much oil, and the dough wasn't quite done. If we hadn't been the only tourits surrounded by a bunch of locals, I probably would have sent it back. But it was still good even imperfect. Then we walked back to our hotel and packed up for our flight out.

Tuesday morning we woke up, got down to the train station where the airport shuttle had dropped us off on our arrival. But we couldn't find the same bus anywhere. Finally, we decided to take the city bus, which didn't take all that much longer, but we had to wait over 30 minutes for it to arrive. So we got to the airport a little later than we had wanted, which turned out to be fine because our plane was delayed about 20 minutes. When we finally got to Milan, the connecting flight to London was also delayed-- about an hour, giving us little time to get our suitcases and change airlines there. To make matters worse, we sat on the plane for another 30 minutes before it took off. When we finally got to London, we went through customs and baggage claim as fast as we could, then walked what seemed likle a mile to a different terminal where the Air Canada check in desk was. It was one hour before the flight was scheduled to take off, but the people behind the counter at first tried to tell us that we were too late to check in. Finally we convinced them to let us on anyway, but they told us to RUN and cut in security lines in order to make the boarding time. So we did run, but after the security screening guys let us go straight to the front, another security guy came up and demanded that we do a "random" liquids test. It was so stupid and he took his time testing a few of my bottles on a litmus strip of some sort. So then we ran some more, until my lungs gave out, and we walked the rest of the way to the gate (it was a long way away). We were just in time to get on with the last rows of passengers. So we weren't late after all, and I'm not sure what the big deal was. We certainly sat on the plane for a while before it pulled away from the gate.

We tried to stay awake on that flight, even though it was 4:00 am Italy time when we arrived in Toronto, where the clocks said 9:00 pm. We caught the hotel shuttle and enjoyed a wonderfully American hotel room complete with real queen bed, hot shower, and iron (which we didn't use, but were just thrilled to have available). We did have to wake up early to catch the 6:30 airport shuttle the next morning, but we felt much more rested than if we had pushed on through to Dallas that night. So now we're on our final plane ride, hooray! We were only surprised that going through customs at Toronto airport took so long. Over an hour, at least.


So that was our trip to Campania, Italy. We really enjoyed it, and we certainly learned a lot:
1) Spend a little more money to take direct flights at convenient times. Don't try to sleep on a plane.
2) Naples itself is only for veteran European travelers. Others should stick to Sorrento, seeing Pompeii and Capri.
3) The more Italian you know, the easier your trip will be. Learn how to ask "which way" and "how long" questions. I liked the free short podcasts at learnitalianpod.com plus a pocket-size phrase book from Lonely Planet.
4) Pack a collapsable fan in your daypack.
5) Confirm with a hotel beforehand if they have "laundry service." Ours just meant that there was a laudromat nearby.
6) Spend a little more money to stay in hotels closer to public transportation. Our view in Sorrento was great, but it was kind of ruined by the 20-minute bus rude with once-an-hour schedules.
7) Definitely don't go without a cell phone and the numbers for every place you might need.
8) The more out of shape you are, the less you will enjoy the trip.
9) The Italians all wear dark colored clothes. Anything different will stand out a lot.

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