Day 5 - Caserta Palace and Paestum

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Again for the day we had our own personal tour guide of Italy. It was as always fantastic and this time we did some sightseeing outside the bustling port of Naples.

Caserta Palace was on my list of must see things on this particular trip. It was modeled after the Palace of Versailles in France and I wanted to see the Italian take on it. Caserta was the largest palace and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the 18th century. The palace has some 1200 rooms, including two dozen state apartments, a large library, and a theater modeled after the Teatro San Carlo of Naples.


Of all the royal palaces in the world, Caserta is by far the largest in terms of volume, with more than 70 million cu ft.

We started out wandering through the grounds before it go too hot in the day.

The grounds are enormous and filled with runners. What a great place to go running. There were so many side trails, statues, and hidden nooks and crannies that it made me wish I had some running shoes and shorts. Instead we walked around and took pictures. Next time I plan to go running.

Eventually I was convinced to take a carriage ride through the palace grounds. It was fantastic, especially since I'd never been in a carriage. I couldn't get the grin off my face.

We did a quick sweep through the inside and saw the beautiful rooms. It must have been nice to be royal.

After hitting Caserta we drove to Paestum to see the ancient Greek Temple ruins. There is an exquisite restaurant overlooking the ruins that we ate at first. The kitchen had just closed when we got there, but in typical Italian style they were kind enough to open it up again just for us. The restaurant was absolutely beautiful. I wish I could eat there all the time.

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After our late lunch we then wandered through the ruins, happening to see them at sunset. It was pretty epic.

 

A little history - Paestum was a major ancient Greek city. It later became the Roman city of Paestum in 273 BC after the Greco - Italian Poseidon-ians sided with the loser, Pyrrhus, in war against Rome during the first quarter of the third century BC.

In total there are 3 temples - two to the goddess Hera and one to the goddess Athena. It was a fantastic day.