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Friday, 29 June. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we went out to see the ruins of Paestum about 9:00 a.m.. Paestum was founded by the Dorian Greeks and eventually taken over by the Romans. They occupied it for several centuries before abandoning it. It was rediscovered a millennium later by workers building a post road through the area. Paestum is notable for three ancient, but well preserved. Doric temples. We crossed the street from our motel, and there we were, walking among the ruins of Paestum. There was no sign, no ticket office, no fence, no other tourists, nothing. It was just a huge field of tall grass with an occasional Greek temple. We could not believe to site was so poorly developed. We visited each of the three temples. The oldest was called the Basilica (later known as the First Temple of Hera (c. 550 B.C.). Next in age was the Temple of Ceres (later known as the Temple of Athena) (c. 500 B.C.). The Temple of Neptune (later known as the Second Temple of Hera) (c. 450 B.C.) was the latest. We had already seen the Basilica and the First Temple of Hera, which were close together, and were approaching the Temple of Ceres when we heard a man calling from afar and saw him running through the tall grass. As he explained when he reached us, he was the custodian/guard/ticket seller for the ruins. He dutifully collected the entrance fee (L.150 or $0.25 each) and presented us with our tickets. When we finished seeing the Temple of Ceres, we knew from our guide book that there were other ruins at this site. But we they thought would be hard to find in the tall grass, and the large temples had been our primary focus anyway. Jane walked back to the hotel, as Darrell headed for the garage. Our car was ready and Darrell drove it to the motel. We paid our bill ($10 incl. meals) and were on our way. The drive to Camp Darby, where we planned to spend the night, would be several hours, and we were already pretty well "tripped out." Nevertheless, we decided to make one more stop along the way. Our route took us close to Casserta and its Royal Palace (begun 1752), and we decided to visit it. This Palace was constructed by the Bourbon rulers of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies as their main residence. It was the largest palace erected in Europe during the 18th century. The Palace had five floors, 1,200 rooms, including two dozen state apartments, a large library, and a grand theater. Our visit was rushed, however, and we had no time to tour the interior. A sympathic guard let us go in for a quick peek at the Grand Staircase. We spent the rest of our time viewing the grounds. They were magnificent! We stopped for lunch shortly after leaving the Palace, then drove hard the rest of the day. We stopped for a quick supper at an AGIP near Grosseto and finally got to Camp Darby about 9:00 p.m. Our Pontiac had performed well with the new transmission fluid. Saturday, 30 June. We slept late (8:00 a.m.) and had breakfast at the snack bar. We phoned home to tell Rosa we would be there about 3 p.m., and we were. | ||