Paestum.

On our way back to Roma and our eventual departure, we made a rather involved side trip, partially along the coast, to spend two nights by the ruins at Paestum.  A site which is on the UN list of most important historical places in the world, has been occupied since prehistory, and features three of the most intact classical Greek temples existent, is managed by Italian authorities as if it were a cast-concrete dinosaur statue in the desert.  The cryptic entrance, parking facilities and ticket booth are staffed by (now, in the off-season, at least) a handful of locals in street clothes who seem to be anxious for their next chance to slip off for a coffee.  Neither the ticket office or the museum could break a fifty euro note, we had to resort to the nearest bar.  Despite an abundance of refrigerator magnets, reproduction urns and garden statues, beads and snow globes, no one had a decent tour guide in English to sell us.  The museum presentation, while undeniably filled with significant artifacts, had the look of having been put together quickly for an inspection a decade ago, and immediately begun to come unglued and unassembled, housed as it is in a building with a bad roof and intermittent climate-control.

The temples are amazing.  They might rival the Acropolis in Athens.  We were glad we went.