Putting little-visited Paestum on our map

“This is a bonus that’s not on the itinerary,” says tour manager Dario, as we approach the enigmatic ruins of Paestum. “But we have time, and it’s a shame to miss it. Vincenzo, our driver, agrees.” Gregarious and generous, this Italian duo are helping to make our Collette trip a smooth and pleasant experience.

And their decision to give us a closer look at Paestum is well received by our group — especially as it gives us a chance to walk off at least some of the cheese, pasta and wine we’ve just enjoyed at a nearby mozzarella farm.

As well as globally renowned ancient Roman sites like Pompeii and Herculaneum, the region of Campania, south of Naples, has some of the most striking monuments of Magna Graecia, a Greek colony that began to thrive across southern Italy and Sicily from the 8th century BCE.

A UNESCO World Heritage site, rediscovered in the 18th century, and opened to visitors in 1952, Paestum was a trading port originally called Poseidonia — in honour of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, and later renamed in its present Latin form when it was occupied by the Romans.

Although we don’t enter the site — a ticket is required — we have a nice overview by walking along its eastern perimeter, where there are gift shops, cafes and restaurants, but relatively few tourists.

Paestum is littered with relics but dominated by three main temple complexes, all honouring the two most revered Greek goddesses: one is dedicated to Athena, and two to Hera.

Outside the largest temple, we see a solo traveller posing for a selfie, dwarfed by the Doric columns flanking the building’s front and sides.

These are some of the world’s best-preserved ancient Greek buildings, and remind me of those I’ve seen in Athens and Agrigento, a former Greek city in Sicily. Yet compared with those, Paestum induces little hype. In fact, apart from about a dozen independent middle-aged tourists and a boisterous but respectful group of Italian teenagers on a school trip, we appear to be the only ones here.

Spread across 27ha, adorned with umbrella pines and cypress trees, Paestum’s archaeological park looks like a serene and absorbing place for an extended wander, and there’s also a museum stocked with exhibits, including 2500-year-old friezes and frescoes unearthed during the excavations.

Happy to have stretched our legs with Paestum’s splendid backdrop, we reach the carpark, where Vincenzo, is waiting at the wheel of his coach.

I’m looking forward to our next destination — Matera — but I wouldn’t mind returning to Paestum another day. While it feels far removed from the bustle of Naples, it’s just an hour away from that city by rail, and the station here is only a 1km walk from the myriad ancient treasures.

+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Collette. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication. fact file + Beginning in Naples, Collette’s 13-day Amalfi Coast to Puglia tour runs between March and December, costing from $8249 per person (based on two sharing). See gocollette.com/en-au. + If visiting independently, adult admission to the Paestum site and museum is €10 ($16) from December to February, and €15 ($25) from March to November. Entry for under-18s is free, and the price is €2 ($3) for those aged 18-25. A ticket also affords entry to Velia, another ancient Greek and Roman archaeological site, 45km south of Paestum. See parchipaestumvelia.cultura.gov.it/en. + To help plan a trip to Italy, see italia.it/en.