Sadly, Theresa and I parted company this morning. Theresa is off to Florence for a few days before flying home. I have dithered over what to do, but have gone back to my original walking plan with some modifications. The problem is that absolutely no one else is walking the Via down here, which of course makes it more problematic for the solo walker in case of any mishap. So I’ll be careful.
Today has become a train day. First, south to Paestum, which I remembered rather vaguely from a visit with my parents when I was thirteen. I wanted to see the Greek temples again, plus there is a whole city, mainly Roman, in ruins.
The Greeks settled here and started building a city, Poseidonia, in the late seventh century BC. Three of their temples remain. This is the oldest, the Temple of Hera, started in 560 BC.
And finally the Temple of Neptune, 460 BC.
The temples would have been highly decorated and very colourful. Here is a piece of the outside sculptures and then a reconstruction of what it may have looked like.
One last picture. The Romans took over the city in 273 BC, and it went through a period of great prosperity. Here is a large swimming pool (fed by water splashing down from channels towards the left of the photo) in a Roman villa much the same size as today’s McMansions. The city was abandoned in the early Middle Ages, perhaps because of malaria in the swamps, or perhaps because of Saracen raids.
Then a whole afternoon and evening spent waiting for an extremely late train and, with two connections, going north to Cassino,which I’ll talk about tomorrow.
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