Paestum and Buffalo Farm

Paestum and Buffalo Farm tour is available from Naples, Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, and Salerno and it can be adapted to the needs of cruise passengers. The driver will pick you up wherever you prefer.

Paestum and Buffalo Farm is a full-day formula that includes the Paestum tour and the visit of  a very appreciated Buffalo farmhouse that produce and export fresh mozzarella and cheese every day also to the Vatican State. You’ll see the stables where the Buffalos live, all equipped with showers, rotating brush for a rubdown, and classical music for producing excellent milk!

You will meet your guide and your driver at a prearranged time and place.

According to the timing is possible to stop for lunch in the restaurant of the Farmhouse.

Poseidonia

Paestum is the Latin name of the Ancient Poseidonia, in honour of Poseidon, a town originally founded by the Greeks, specifically by Dorics in 650 B.C. The city is 9km south of the Sele River. This place was very important because it provided a natural border to keep the Etruscans out. This region had an abundant amount of travertine and it was used for building material of the town walls and the temples.

It was useful to the Greeks because the land was fertile and this is the reason why Hera, goddess of fertility, became the prominent deity.
The Greeks built three temples that are considered the best preserved Greek temples outside of Greece: the first temple is dedicated to Hera, queen of the Greek gods, sister and wife of Zeus. The temple of Hera was built around 550 BC, and is the oldest of the three temples. It is also referred to as the Basilica.

The second and third temples are thought to be dedicated to Neptune and Ceres or Athena. That of Neptune was built around 450 BC, and is the most complete of the three temples: almost everything is intact except for the roof and parts of the inner walls. The temple of Ceres or Athena, was built around 500 BC and it was later used as a Christian church, indicated by three Christian tombs discovered in the floor.

Paestum

Lucanians called the city Paistom while the Romans were the last to conquer this city in 273 BC and they renamed the city Paestum. They added roads, forums, and theatres in the city. During the 4th century, the city experienced a decline. Progressive deforestation led to the growth of marshes and the increasing growth of marshes caused the Malaria. In the 5th century, the Christians converted one of the temples into a church and around the 9th century, the last inhabitants left Paestum that became a swamp owing to the continual overflow of the river Sele and also because of attacks of the Saracens. These people established a new settlement called Capaccio. Paestum was buried and hidden by the swamps and forgotten. Nine hundred years later (1748), during the construction of new roads, the city of Paestum was found by chance and excavated.