Your English-speaking driver will pick you up directly from your hotel or villa for the Paestum and buffalo mozzarella tasting private tour.
The first stop will be a visit to a cheese factory, where you will see how buffalo mozzarella is made (including the tasting of a bite-size); the yoghurt making; buffalo-rearing; visit to the farming museum and leather shop. The guided tour lasts approx. 1hr and 20 mins.
Afterwards you will be heading to the archaeological site. Paestum founded by Greek colonist, dates from 600 BC. The three majestic and remarkably well-preserved Greek Temples sit on a grassy plain that really gives off the sense of an ancient, vanished city, enclosed in its still-standing boundary walls.
The Temple of Hera, built around 550 BC by Greek colonists, is the oldest surviving temple in Paestum. Eighteenth-century archaeologists named it “The Basilica” because they mistakenly believed it to be a Roman building.
The second Temple to Hera, the nearby Temple of Neptune, was built around 460-450 BC. It has been variously thought of as a temple dedicated to Poseidon. It has nothing in common with the first temple, reason being for its symmetrical style for its columns.
The Temple of Ceres from the 6th century BC, has 34 columns still standing and a large altar for sacrifices to the gods.
Across the Temple of Ceres, you can also visit the National Archaeological Museum of Paestum; it displays the metopesremoved from the treasury of the Temple of Hera and some of southern Italy’s finest tomb paintings from the 4th century BC.
Tour length: 8-9 hours Included: Mercedes vehicle, English-speaking driver, factory entrance fee, all taxes, tolls, fuel and parking Excluded: Private guide, lunch and entrance fee at the temples.
