Paestum

Before it was Roman it was Greek: it was called Poseidonia, founded around 600 BC by settlers from Sybaris. The Lucanians took it in 400 BC, the Romans in 273 BC and renamed it Paestum. Then the trade routes moved, the marsh arrived, and the city was abandoned and forgotten for a thousand years — which is exactly why it reached us as it was.

What you see are three Doric temples built between 550 and 450 BC, standing, columns in place. Not ruins: whole Greek temples, and there is nothing else like them in Italy. The walls, the amphitheatre and the paved streets are still there too.

In the museum, inside the site, is the Tomb of the Diver: the only surviving example of Greek figurative funerary painting from that period. Worth the trip on its own.

Around it is the plain where they make buffalo mozzarella, and beyond that the sea and the long beaches.

Getting there: by car, or by train — Paestum station is on the Naples–Salerno–Reggio Calabria line, just outside the ancient walls.