Paestum

Just south of Salerno, Paestum is home to the country’s best-preserved relics of the Magna Graecia colonies. It is an enigmatic site, with three Doric temples dominating a flower-strewn, grassy plain. It includes the temples of Ceres and Neptune, a forum, a basilica and city walls. The museum houses a collection of friezes, rounding off one of the best collections of ancient architecture in the world. The 12km (7mi) island is one of the few protected natural environments in Italy’s south, known as the Woods of Diana.