Paestum

Paestum is the only well-preserved Greek Temples north of Sicily (site open every day from 9:00 a.m. to one hour before sunset - the museum is open every day from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., except the first and the third monday of the month). It spreads across a large area at the bottom end of the Piana del Sele, a wide flat plain grazed by buffalos that produce the best quality of southern Italy's mozzarella cheese. Paestum, or Poseidonia as it was then known, was founded by the Greeks from Sybaris in the sixth century BC, and later, in 273 BC, colonized by the Romans, who latinized the name. But by the ninth century a combination of malaria and Saracen raids had decimated the population and left the buildings deserted and gradually overtaken by thick forest, and the site wasn't rediscovered until the eighteenth century during the building of a road ordered by Charles III. Things to see Paestum excavation site - Neptune, Basilica and Ceres are the three golden-stoned temples that are the among the best preserved Doric temples in Europe. The Temple of Neptune, dating from about 450 BC, is the most complete, with only its roof and parts of the inner walls missing. The Basilica of Hera, built a century or so earlier, retains its double rows of columns, while the Temple of Ceres at the northern end of the site was used as a Christian Church for a time. Not only the celebrated temples have survived. An amphitheatre and much of the 4 km circuit of walls still stand to some height, along with some of the towers and gates. Museum - The Museum across the road holds finds from the site and the surroundings. The masterpiece is the "Tomb of the Diver", a graceful and expressively naturalistic piece of work, possibly the only existent example of Greek wall painting.