Salerno Sunday 1 June, Day 39

Today began with an amazing breakfast prepared by our young hostess at the B&B, freshly baked muffins, an apple cake, home made marmalade, tart, plus the usual stuff, cereal, yoghurt, fresh coffee. We sat around a large circular table looking out over the splendid view, comparing notes with some of the other guests.

After that breakfast we definitely needed to get some exercise. We set off up and down the little streets, visiting first the Museum of Medical History. The first medical teaching institute on the world was established in Salerno so the place has a long tradition, and the museum certainly has an extensive collection of medical implements. Not exactly the most cheerful place however. Lots of prints of appalling medical conditions and people having holes drilled in them or implements inserted in them.

From there, to lighten the mood we visited the crypt of the Duomo, with its door lintels composed of life sized skeleton carvings, just in case you missed the point and thought you were going into a pub. This weekend is a long weekend in Italy, the Festival de Republica tomorrow and the feast of the Pentecost last Thursday which is also a holiday here. I guess that is why Rome train station was so busy. One nice thing about the long weekend is that a number of the churches, including the crypt, had teams of lovely young art students stationed outside many of the churches who were just waiting for visitors so they could provide commentary and background. Their pride in the history of the buildings of the city was very nice to experience, though I am afraid we didn’t understand too much of what they were telling us. Next we headed on to the Duomo itself, believed by the faithful to be the last resting place of St Matthew, and he certainly has had a few resting places.

The church was built by Robert Guiscard, the extraordinary Norman freebooter who took over Southern Italy around 1035 – the carvings have a very Norman feel.

Moving on we visited yet another church, Chiesa di San Michele, with more charming guides, and admired the grilled gallery where the Sisters of St Claire, an enclosed order, could attend mass without being seen.

Highlight of the morning was the archeological museum, which amongst other things has artefacts from the excavation of a number of Greek and Etruscan burial sites from the area around Salerno. Most amazing Greek pottery including this vase, dating from late 6^th Century BC.

After all that art and culture we were starving, and stopped at the first place we found, which was very nice. Managed to catch the elevator back up the hill before its siesta time, then we followed its example and had a siesta as well.

Late afternoon, we joined the passagiata along the sea front. It really is a very civilized past time, everyone can join in, dogs, children, older people like us, young people checking each other out. A fair chunk of the population of Salerno seemed to be down there enjoying the warm Sunday afternoon.

Tomorrow we plan to catch train to visit the nearby ancient town of Paestum.