The joys of small town Italy

So I will be the first one to admit that I was getting pretty darn tired of the unfriendly city-folk that inhabit Rome. So when Sam and I left for Paestum yesterday morning, I think we were both relieved and excited about the change.

We left for the station a little later than we had planned, so we got to experience for the first time the joys of literally running to catch a train. We made it in plenty of time, but it would turn out that that train would be delayed somewhere that started with "MON"--that was all I could see of the sitgn--for over an hour. This meant, of course, that we missed our connection in Salerno. I have decided that these are the kind of snags in travel plans that get me the most stressed out, because they are beyond my control and it sucks when there is nothing I can do to fix it. But it worked out that we caught a train to Paestum almost immediately after getting to Salerno (by some miracle I decided to double-check the board and discovered ALL the trains were running late).

As we traveled further and further south, the sweeping apartment buildings and overall cloudy atmosphere of the big cities gave way to beautiful mountains and rolling farmlands. The people grew friendlier and the air cleaner. I was enjoying the ride when our stop came, and my anxiety returned, for our stop was downright close to the definition of 'the middle of nowhere'. There was a station, sure, but not a person in sight, and it seemed the only way to leave it was to drive off, which obviously we had no possibility of doing. But by our luck, there was a map, and the Greek ruins of Paestum were not more than a mile away, and so we made it there safely.

When we got there, however, what seemed to be the entrance was already closed, and so my next greatest fear appeared to be realized; we had come all that way, with all those delays and everything else to discover that the ruins were already closed. But again, to our luck, a British mother/daughter combo came strolling up with the same intention of seeing the ruins. They quickly read the sign, which said something about the entrance was 50 meters north of the Neptune Bar, and they set us off in the right direction. They were not at all interested in making two very nice friends, but they helped us a bit anyway.

So in the end, we got in to see the absolute greatest ruins I could ever imagine, topping even the Colosseum. The site had not only three of the most intact Doric temples from all of Ancient Greece, but also the ruins of an entire city built around them, including houses, an ampitheater, and forum. It was absolute historical heaven. And to top it all off, the weather was dreamy: sunny skies, green grass, flowers, and almost 70 degree weather (eat your hearts out, snowy Ohio!) All of our pictures are terrific...look forward to those in the future. Yesterday was by far the greatest adventure thus far.

Sam and I have both decided the Paestum is the perfect place to retire; work at the ruins by day, walk the quiet, pedestrian filled streets by evening. And the people were so much more approachable and freiendly. It was such a nice change from the continuous chaos that accosted us in Florence and Rome. Each has its place, but in the end, we are small town girls after all.

Today, we are headed off to see the ruins of Pompeii, before we head back to Rome, and before Sam leaves for home tomorrow morning. I will miss her, but in her going, I get to move on to the second phase of my trip, which I look forward to as well.