20 September 2023

Tom

Little did we know when we signed up for “all day” tours that we would spend half of the eight hours on the road. Our trip to Paestum took 2+ hours each way, as the town is located north of Naples and, as noted previously, the narrow winding roads plus traffic congestion slowed any hope of a swift arrival.

Our first stop was at an organic buffalo mozzarella farm outside Paestum, Tenuta Vannulo. When we think of “buffalo” we envision American bison, but these buffalo were descendents of Indian water buffalo imported by Mussolini. The land around Paestum was rife with malaria, and the animals were tasked with churning up the soil to achieve better drainage to alleviate the problem. Obviously they also provided another benefit – milk twice as rich in milk fat and protein than regular cows. The mozzarella farm produces 300 kilos of mozzarella a day, and all daily cheese production is sold that day with none left over. Nor is any sold outside the area or exported. The samples we tasted were incredibly sweet due to the high lactose content, and Tom took his pills to be sure of no latent effects later!

Of added interest to those of us with dairy farm roots (Dan especially but also Tom), the automated system of feeding, milking, and massaging the cows was most impressive, especially the milking machines that “read” the buffalo’s tag, memorized the udder configuration, and proceeded to milk automatically. The animal’s reward was food, but the machine could register if the cow was trying to belly up to the trough too often and would redirect if needed.

Next were the ruins of Paestum, an area inhabited for thousands of years. The Greeks subsequently conquered the area about 600 years before Christ and established temples to Poseiden, Hera, and Athena between 550 and 470 BC. Later the Romans hired Lucano mercenaries to conquer the area, and they established control renaming the temples for Roman deities. Our guide Angela said these were the oldest temples in the world that had never been buried or rebuilt. We walked the paths of the agora, forum, and amphitheatre, and even saw some ongoing archeological digging.

Lunch was at a restaurant nearby with menu all in Italian. We ordered and none of us got what we thought we were ordering, except for Dan’s pasta. But, we were hungry and grateful to finally have a meal.

For dinner we ate at Donna Sofia, a restaurant decorated with images of Sophia Loren. We all shared varieties of pizza, two bottles of wine, and tasty desserts. And, who should show up but the pseudo accordian player mentioned previously! Albeit this unwelcome occurrence, the menu provided enough variety that we decided to return tomorrow to celebrate Tom’s birthday! Gastronomic details will follow tomorrow after our “all day” trip to Herculaneum and Pompeii. Stay tuned!