So… this was one of the days I’d been looking forward to. We’d visited Paestum in 2019, and if we were going to be in the area again then it’s somewhere I wouldn’t want to miss.
The morning started with a cacophony though! Cockerels from 6:30 and church bells from about 7:30. At one point there were two churches peeling in some sort of weird discord! Well, we were up at that point.
While we really liked the campsite, there was nowhere to wash other than a shower, not that we found anyway. But each of the newer men’s and women’s toilets had a sink… so that an a body wipe had to do… remember, it is camping.
We’d not done a heavy van setup last night (no awning, bikes left on, only one front seat turned around), so it was a quick job to get up and out by 9.
As well as eggs and coffee this morning I treated myself to a GF biscuit. The biscuit is very much not part of a paleo-keto diet, so it’s a good job these GF shops are rare, even in Italy.
There was nobody looking after the site as we left, so we just trundled off.
Paestum was a short 3.5km hop from our Agro Campsite. We had considered going there last night by bike, but decided it would be better to do it in the sunshine with the morning light in the site. And that was a great shout in the end.
Paestum is a 2,500 year old settlement and temple site. It was originally settled by the Greeks around 560 BCE with the Hera 1 and then Hera 2 temples being built around that time. The Romans then took the site over and constructed a huge town on the site. The town was constructed on a grid system of 35m x 273m, with some of the houses taking a whole grid section. Only about 25% of the Roman town has been uncovered as the remainder still sits on private land.
But enough of the background, here’s some of the pictures.
This was a private pool for the biggest house in the town.
It’s not obvious whether this is something that they put on every day, but each of the Hera temples, Athena temple and the Amphitheatre had a re-enactment and musical accompaniment. The actor made a big monologue and the a musician played some music for atmosphere at the end of the mono. The Hera 1 guy was playing a drunk. If we had any idea what they were saying the perhaps we could convey more 🤷♂️
And that was Paestum Archeological Site. It’s awesome! The morning light was also great for getting the most out of the stonework. The shadows can be tricky to work with and any shots into the sun lack contrast, but if you spend the time to pick the shot, then I think this light is fantastic.
I suspect that a lot of people don’t venture this far south from Amalfi or Naples, but is totally worth the effort!
After two hours wandering around the site in the morning sun, we needed a not-stand-up.
There are a bunch of cafes and restaurants outside site exit.
And then we spotted an Alfa meet up in the car park next to our cafe. And I can’t resist a car meet up.
And then we were off. Nav set for a small campsite north of Amalfi called Agriturismo Costiera Amalfina.
It was mostly dual carriageway from Paestum to Salerno.
But once we’d left Salerno we started winding up through some villages and then some very twisty roads into the mountains. The views over Naples in the plain were quite breathtaking… as was the drop off the side of the road. The campsite is down an even windier road, and very steep.
I’ve got a Timelapse of the drive from Salerno that I’ll post here when we’ve got enough internet.. (here).
The site owner, Antonio, speaks no English. But that doesn’t seem to matter much. He makes himself clear and seems to understand some English, even if he doesn’t speak it.
We got booked in for at least two nights, bus tickets can be bought from Antonio after 7 and we got a map with a load of useful travel and site info.
They were doing a packing session for the many boxes of sweet chestnuts (Marron glacé) they’d collected from the many trees on the site.
And I treated myself to a GF pizza from Zero Glutine. Probably the best GF pizza I’ve ever had!!
We got put next to another couple of Brit couples. Both seem to be from Cornwall. One with a sister who has one of the last VW Californias in the same colour as Ollie.
The site is good, and Antonio very friendly. The toilet is clean and there’s a loo seat toilet paper and hand soap!! Yay! But the WiFi was next to useless, there’s only one loo, the showers are a whopping €3 a go and there’s no dishwashing facilities.
The site is on a bus route though. So tomorrow we’re gettting the 8:50 bus into Amalfi (30-ish minutes) and then a return boat/ferry to Positano (90-ish minutes). Then there’s a couple of buses to get back from Amalfi in the evening.
We’re trying to figure out what we do over the next few days. We want to do the “walk of the gods”, Positano, Sorrento, Pompei and Vesuvius.
We can do some of this from different bases, so will be picking an option in the next 24 hours.
2737 miles on the odo.
Leave a Comment