ead: PAESTUM]

Naples, April 25th, 1830 {p.344}

Started at four o'clock in the morning from Salerno, and got to
Paestum at eight. Tormented to death by beggars and ciceroni
(often both characters in one), for in Italy everybody who shows
a stranger about is a cicerone, from Professor Nibby down to a
Calabrian peasant. There is little beauty in the scenery of
Paestum, but the temples amply repay the trouble of the journey.
I agree with Forsyth that they are the most impressive monuments
I have ever seen. The famed roses of Paestum have disappeared,
but there are thousands of lizards 'nunc virides etiam occultant
spineta lacertos.' No excavations have ever been made here, but
they talk of excavating. There were some fine Etruscan vases
found in a tomb at Paestum, which we did not see. The brute of a
_custode_ knew nothing of it, nor should I if I had not seen the
model in the Museum afterwards. Thousands of Etruscan vases may
be had for digging; they are found in all the tombs. The peasants
have heaps of little carved images of terra cotta and coins,
which they offer for sale. I believed they were fabricated, but a
man I met there showed me two or three that he had turned up with
his stick, so that they may be genuine. What treasures Naples
possesses, and how unworthy she is of them! Paestum[1] long
neglected, and Pompeii hardly touched! At Rome they are always
digging and doing something, and though the Papal Government is
neither active nor rich, I do believe they would not let this
town (Pompeii, I mean) remain buried when a few thousand pounds
would bring it all to light. There seem to be no habitations near
Paestum, but there is a church, which was well attended, for the
peasants were on their knees all round it; and while we were
breakfasting (in a manger with the horses out in the air) they
came out, strange-looking figures, rude, uncouth, and sunburnt,
and without any of the finery which they generally wear on a
Sunday.

[1] The authorities of course can't agree when Paestum was
built, and by whom, or whether one of the temples (the
largest) was a temple or a basilica. The perfect state
of these temples, particularly that called of Neptune,
is the more remarkable because there are scarcely any
vestiges of other buildings. Morier thought them
inferior to the temples at Athens, but so they may well
be; the Athenian temples are built o