Mozzarella farm and Paestum

Today started with a visit to an organic mozzarella farm. Mozzarella is made from water buffalo milk. (Similar cheese from cow milk is fior de latte.) The buffalo here lead a charmed life. They are all micro-chipped which helps the farm keep track of them and the quality of their milk. They are housed in a beautiful large barn with massage brushes available to give them a rub down any time (and we saw them line up for it). They are milked through an automatic milking machine that knows how big they are (from the chip). The buffalo are fed organic feed after they are milked and are not given hormones, injections of any kind? Buffalo milk has higher sugar content and more fat than cow milk. They were originally brought to Italy from Asia but have been here for a long time, and we later learned from Vincenzo that it was Alexander the Great who brought them. We sampled some of the fresh mozzarella, which was so good! 

From here our next stop is Paestum. Vincenzo gives us some background on the history of the Greeks in this area of Southern Italy. Apparently this was a major and very influential part of the Greek empire back in the day. The museum has some nice Greek era artifacts, pottery, armor, architectural fragments. The highlight for me were the painted frescos from a tomb showing a diver. 

After our museum tour, we walk to view two of the three temples. On the way, there are remnants of the old Roman town that was once here, including a coliseum for gladiator fights. We learned that these types of competitions actually were originated by the local people here (Italic peoples) and spread to the rest of the empire by the Romans who recognized the popularity of the events.

The large temple here is one of the best preserved. The oldest temple on the site is next to it. You can see an evolution in the Doric columns between the two temples (built about 50 years apart). The large temple still has the interior columns that housed the statue of the god (believed to have been Apollo). The metopes and other artwork have long been removed. Many of the stones from the surrounding Roman village were 'reused' long ago by local people for their own homes.

Lunch is at a restaurant on the site of the Roman village. We started with a caprese (more delicious mozzarella and really good olive oil), spaghetti with a simple tomato sauce, but the best simple spaghetti I've ever had, with a lemon cake that didn't taste of lemon but was so light it was like eating a cloud. After lunch we sat with the son and daughter of the restaurant owners and were able to ask them questions about their lives. Such an interesting opportunity, but sad to hear how cynical they are about their country's future. 

After a long bus ride back, we had a short time to freshen up before a lecture by an archeologist from the Naples Museum with the history of the collections there, as well as photos of objects not currently on display (either in storage or on loan). The images included objects from Pompeii currently traveling in LA, which I saw a few weeks ago! She also had pictures of how the museum's WWII era director arranged to protect the valuable artifacts from bombing, which she has never shown before!

After that interesting lecture, we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner, which was penne with mushroom in cream sauce, bresaola (beef rolled with spinach and garlic), and delicious coffee and hazelnut gelato. At my table was a meteorologist, and we got to talking about dramatic weather as we also had a couple from New Jersey who contributed their Hurricane Sandy stories.