Last day in Positano

Today was largely devoted to packing as we were leaving Positano tomorrow morning and heading back to Rome for one night before going to Malta.
Sheila, Rosalind, Adam and I also walked down town to transfer some more photos from a memory cards onto compact discs. The weather had at last changed and I was keen to see a storm on the coast, it did not amount to much, but it was interesting to see the boat owners drag their craft up the beach with electric hoists. It looked like they had all decided that the tourist season was over and it was the day to pack everything away.
As I am not that keen on shopping I left the others to it and caught the bus back up the hill to the villa. I called into the shop nearby and bought tuna Panini for lunch and also some cakes. Adam and Rosalind stayed down town doing more shopping that put their case under severe strain. My packing did not take long as it was just a case of emptying all the drawers and cupboards into my one piece of luggage, although my small daypack became a little more stuffed.

After my packing I awarded myself a little siesta after which I finished reading one of Adam’s quirky books written by Glen David Gold, it is called ‘Carter Beats The Devil’ and published by Sceptre an imprint of Hodder Stoughton ISBN 0 34082440 9. It is about illusionists in the U.S.A during the early part of the 20th century it is fictional and I found it very enjoyable.
We went up the street for dinner and back to the villa for an early night I have included a couple of pictures that are evidence of the change in the weather:
href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7450/1861/1600/408418/PIC01498.jpg"> Showing the change in the weather

Rubber duckie to Amalfi

Adam at the helm of the rubber duckie
Thursday 14th September 2006
Adam had arranged to hire a ‘rubber duckie’ for a trip along the coast to Amalfi to see the views of the coast from the sea side. It was about three metres long with a helm position for the captain. It is described as an inflatable, but it has a fibre glass bottom to it making it more rigid and safer. We picked up the boat from the beachfront at Positano with Adam hiring it for two hours. As we walked down the pontoon to the boat I mentioned to Sheila, “they are a bit of a bumpy ride, no matter how flat the sea is”.
“Don’t try and moor anywhere along the coast and always stay 100 metres away from the shore because of rocks, and keep an eye on the weather as it looks like it might change” were the ‘sage’ words of advice form the boat owner as we left.
There was a very slight chop, but this was translated by Sheila to a force ten gale as the boat provided a little bumpy ride that I had predicted. The views were very good and we managed to get along the coast to Amalfi, before Sheila’s strident pleas to go back were supported enough by Rosalind and Adam was convinced that a return to Positano was the least of many evils. Though of course the deputy captains insisted that Adam was driving too fast or too close to the rocks, we tootled around off Positano beach to use up some more of the time of the hire and then disembarked and went for a swim off the beach.
It was quite cool and the pebbles were very sharp, Rosalind decided not to swim and Sheila did not last long as she was unable to keep her footing on the pebbles, my observation that “it’s just like having a foot massage” did nothing to improve my standing nor Sheila’s as I had to help her ashore.
Sheila and I had dinner at the villa while Adam and Rosalind went to ‘Sirenuse’ a hotel restaurant that has a very good reputation. Sadly Adam and Rosalind report that it may deserve a reputation; but not a good one the menu was again very limited and very over priced. However it was a chance for them to get dressed up and go out on their own for a change.
The photos of the day and night are as follows:
href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7450/1861/1600/835791/PIC01460.jpg"> Sheila in the bow
Rosalind

Note the hole in the cliff under a couple of villas I think a trip to the cellar could have been very interesting

Rosalind with Amalfi in the background
On our way back from Amalfi to Positano

I am bowing out in front of Positano
Sheila in the bow
A reminder of the seven hundred steps that are part of the climb back up to the villa

The Greek Temples at Paestum

Wednesday 13th September 2006
We left the villa about mid-morning, with no problems about getting the car out as Adam had moved the car into a little driveway in front of the garage belong to the villa. Fortunata managed to communicate to me that the owner did not like us to park there but I ‘did not understand’ what she was saying and thought we were only there for a few more days so what were they going to do about it if we did not park in the impossible narrow spot next to the villa front wall and we had visions of being blocked in on the day that we were leaving to go back to Rome.
Paestum is about fifty kilometres south of Salerno so we had to drive along the very narrow coast road through Priano, Amalfi and Atrani until we could link up with a major road heading south. It was on this narrow coast road that we were squeezed into a stone wall along side the road, not a major issue just a bit of a scrape. I thought that the damage was done on our way to Ravello on a previous day, but when writing about this day trip I discovered that this was the actual day when the damage occurred.

We were a little surprised and how large and modern looking Salerno was; it appeared similar in size to Naples and with some pleasant beachside suburbs.
South of Salerno is a very flat coastal plain with many cheap looking holiday complexes that are a bit grotty and really did not inspire us to enjoy that part of the trip and filled us with some trepidation as to what Paestum might be like.
Ancient Poseidonia, founded along the Sele River by Greek colonists from Sybaris around 600 BCE (Before the Christian Era), became the Roma Colony of Paestum in 273 BCE. The town began to decline in the 1st century BCE due to malaria. Seismic disturbance and deforestation, (the local pines made excellent raw material for building ships) had gradually turned the area into marshland.
The inhabitants tried to combat the rising water level; they raised their streets and homes, or went to live on higher ground. It was at this time that the temple of Hera was made into a church by the then Christian population. Eventually however Paestum was abandoned for the nearby town of Capaccio.
The site of Paestum was first unearthed in the 18th century during the building of a road, but it is claimed that most of it remained undiscovered until the 1950’s. There is still excavation work taking place exposing more foundations of buildings etc; but ‘The Temples of Paestum’ were featured in a number of paintings of the area in the 18th century including works by Antonio Joli (1758) so the claims about it not being discovered until the 1950’s are spurious.
The Three Temples of Paestum, are excellent and make it a site well worth seeing, Rosalind claims that they are far better than the Acropolis in Athens.
The smallest temple, Temple of Hera, the Basilica was first thought to be civic building as it lacked any religious features, when in fact it is the oldest temple in Paestum, built around 530 BCE. It has nine front columns, eighteen side columns and two aisles divided by a row of columns.
The temple nearest the entrance to the site is now called the Temple of Ceres and was built around 500 BCE and for a long time was thought to have been dedicated to Athena, until a votive offering nearby, indicated that it was in fact a temple dedicated to Ceres. However I wonder about some of the ‘science’ of archaeology, and think perhaps someone may have just dropped a Ceres votive my mistake and now the archaeologists have grasped this ‘red herring’ and run with it, (I like mixed metaphors). The Temple of Ceres has six fluted columns at the front, thirteen lateral ones and an undivided cella.
Next to the Temple of Hera is the largest temple, now called the Temple of Neptune has also been the subject of debate about its dedication. Some claim that it was either dedicated to Apollo or Zeus, but for some reason unknown to me it is commonly called the Temple of Neptune. The Temple of Neptune was built in 450 BCE, and it is one of the most complete Greek temples in Europe. The Temple of Neptune has six front columns, fourteen side columns and its cella is divided into three aisles by two rows of two tier columns.


It was a very hot dry day, so Sheila elected to stay outside of the site and sit in the shade while Adam, Rosalind and I wandered around awestruck by the size and condition of the temples. Sheila could see all the temples from outside of the site as there is only a low metal picket fence around the site and it is only if you want to get up close and personal do you need to pay the entrance fee.







This famous fresco ‘Tomb of the Diver’ which dates from about 480BCE was discovered in 1968 about one kilometre from Paestum. Supposedly the image of the diver symbolises the passage to the afterlife. To me it just looks like someone diving off a diving tower into some water, but I guess that explanation would be too mundane for the academic archaeologists.
After the museum we feeling hungry and went into the café next door. On the menu was ‘chip pizza’, I thought that this was a mistake in interpretation/translation so just had to order it. Of course I had to eat it to destroy the evidence.