2019 – Italy- Salerno discovered….

Where, why and how – Salerno?

After our time in Greece, we were bound for Sardinia. We have not really explored any part of Italy to date, so it seemed like an idea to call in and check out the Amalfi Coast. We had an inexpensive EasyJet flight from Naples to Olbia on Sardinia, giving us 4 convenient nights to fill en route – hence destination Salerno!

The city of Salerno is about an hours drive south of Naples Airport and our Salerno AirBNB “ super host” collected us with his car at Naples Airport at 10pm at night, “ super service”. A bit of the Autostrada was closed due to a fire on the hillside, so it was about midnight when we reached Salerno. Our first views were at night of the modern port, the medieval quarter with a massive entrance door to the building with our apartment – an ex Palace ie old big Italian mansion – opposite the Police Headquarters – very secure!

Salerno is tucked into the west side of the spine of Italy just before the peninsular that becomes the Amalfi Coast, then Sorrento and on to the Island of Capri. The city looks out into the Gulf of Salerno and the Tyrrhenian Sea. It has a beautiful medieval centre, a 19th century surround and a post WW2 modern side which recognises the growth of the area and the damage inflicted when the Allies landed in 1943.

City Views

Staying in Medieval Salerno

Our 3rd floor high ceiling apartment in its, “ ex Italian Palace”, was lovely, a few bits quirky eg a Front Door key for the massive wooden entrance, a Back Door key that leads out the medieval back streets – we managed to break that key- and an Apartment key with spring loaded multiple turn lock!

Salerno was our ideal place to visit, clean, minimal graffiti and rubbish, great history, slightly off the beaten tourist track, a wandering type of place, that I hope these general pics below of the medieval part of the city will convey.

What we were particularly impressed about was that the medieval heart of was built to be lived in, of course, and today was still being lived in and worked within by the general population – plus an odd AirBNB!

Giardino della Minerva

In the 6th century in Salerno a medical fraternity established a reputation for the healing powers of plants and herbs. A Garden was created in a series of terraces in the Walls of the City and it is preserved today- Giardino della Minerva.

You access by working back through the Medieval city to the side of the cliff, then you find the “ ascensore communale” – public lift, enjoy the brilliant paintings on exterior apartment walls ie “ not graffiti but super art” and you find Giardono Della Minerva. It’s a modest area, really well signposted and displayed , with views across the city and fantastic history, we loved it.

The Duomo – Cathedral St Matthew

The Duomo lies in the heart of the medieval centre of Salerno. Built in about 1080, the tower was added in the 12th century, interior worked up in the 17&18th centuries. The stunning crypt was the work of artists in the 15th and 18th centuries. Today the Duomo presents for free as a beautifully restored cathedral, wonderful mosaic work and a crypt that for €1 you can visit and just wonder at. Truly, on entering the crypt we were stopped in our tracks and for a while were speechless, it’s so perfecto!!

Salerno footnotes….

Salerno was intended to be a place just as a base for us to stay whilst we explored the Amalfi Coast. In the next blog you can read our thoughts on the Amalfi Coast, but suffice it to say we found Salerno to be a working Italian City with beauty absolutely in its own right. We would not have missed it for the world!

On leaving Salerno, we had to get to Naples Airport, so chose the train to Naples Centrale – €9.40 for the two of us – a 40 minute trip.

NB Italian Trains, when buying tickets there are rival train companies, levels of comfort, cost etc etc. Check out your options. We had a short journey and the local regional train was 25% of the cost of the “ super train”.

Also when you have your ticket you will need to “ authorise it” on the platform before you travel – see pic. On Salerno Station we found the overhead info boards very useful and the train announcements were in Italian and then English – pretty excellent.

Then from the Naples Centrale railway station, a crazy taxi ride to Naples Airport, cost €20 fix price. Road surfaces dreadful, rubbish and graffiti way worse than Thessaloniki and the driving – aggressive does not start to describe! But we made it safely!!