Paestum Greek Temples

Paestum is the place where Magna Graecia, the Greek world of southern Italy, still stands upright. Founded by Greek colonists as Poseidonia around 600 BC, later a Lucanian and then a Roman town, it was abandoned in the early Middle Ages as malaria spread across the coastal plain, and so escaped the rebuilding that erased most ancient cities. What survives are three Doric temples, among the best preserved anywhere, in an open, grassy archaeological park ringed by nearly five kilometres of ancient walls. The oldest, the so-called Basilica, is in fact a temple of Hera from the sixth century BC, broad and heavy with swelling columns. Beside it the Temple of Neptune, from the following century, is the masterpiece: a near-complete peristyle with its inner colonnades still in place, honey-gold in late afternoon light. To the north the smaller Temple of Athena, traditionally called the Temple of Ceres, completes the trio. Between them lie the Roman forum, an amphitheatre cut through by a modern road, houses and the underground shrine of the heroön. The ticket also covers the National Archaeological Museum across the road, which should never be skipped: its star is the Tomb of the Diver, painted slabs from around 470 BC showing a young man diving into water and a symposium of reclining drinkers, among the very few Greek figurative paintings to survive. The museum also holds metopes from the sanctuary of Hera at the mouth of the Sele river and vivid Lucanian tomb paintings. Paestum lies in the Cilento area, a UNESCO site, and the surrounding plain is buffalo country, so lunch can include the freshest mozzarella you will ever taste. Fit: history lovers above all, couples who want quiet, and families who prefer open meadows to crowded streets.

Why it matters: Pompeii shows how Romans lived; Paestum shows how Greeks built. The temples are older than the Parthenon in Athens and, in their completeness, more legible: you can walk around and between the columns, see the entasis (the subtle swelling of the shafts), and understand the proportions that architects from Goethe's age onward travelled here to study. Rediscovered by eighteenth-century travellers on the Grand Tour, Paestum shaped the Greek Revival style across Europe and America.

How to do it well: go early or late for soft light and space; the site is large and exposed, with little shade, so carry water and a hat in warm months. Start in the museum for context (the Tomb of the Diver first), then walk the park from the Temple of Athena south through the forum to the two great temples. A guided tour helps with the site's layered Greek, Lucanian and Roman history. Allow three to four hours for both parts, plus lunch at a buffalo farm or a beach restaurant nearby.

Practicals: Paestum station on the Naples to Salerno line is a short walk from the walls; trains from Naples take around an hour and a half, from Salerno about half an hour, and the linked page also offers a round trip from Naples by train. The site is open daily. Combining Paestum with the Amalfi Coast works from Salerno; from Sorrento it is a long day. Trade-off: it is far from Naples by regional standards, but the reward is the most moving ancient site in the region after Pompeii, often with a fraction of the crowds.