Pompeii Gets the Crowds. Paestum Gets the Locals.
TheVoyageCo asked Alessia for her local insights for Campania. This is what she said.
Paestum has three Doric Greek temples in better condition than almost anything in Greece, an hour south of Salerno, and is visited by a fraction of the people who go to Pompeii. Alessia Del Verme pairs it with the Cilento Coast, a UNESCO biosphere reserve of mostly undeveloped beaches that she argues outperforms the Amalfi Coast on price and authenticity, and a plate of fresh buffalo mozzarella from the Paestum plains. Come between April and June.
Alessia Del Verme
Ciao! I’m Alessia, and I’m basically your personal compass for the heart of Italy! Consider me your human GPS, but with much better taste in pizza! I graduated in Oriental Languages in Naples and I'm currently working on my Master’s in Planning and Managemnt of Tourism Systems—which is a fancy way o
When most people think of Campania, they think of either Pompeii or the Amalfi Coast. The hairpin roads, the pastel-coloured towns, the boats in clear water. Alessia Del Verme does not dismiss any of that. But Alessia, who knows the region from its ancient ruins to its coastline, thinks the real story of Campania is being told somewhere else, and that most visitors leave without ever finding it.
Alessia lives in Campania and advises travellers through The Voyage Co.
A Sense of Campania
Alessia opens with one sentence about Campania that does real work. Both halves of it explain why visitors leave the region with the wrong impression.
Q. How would you describe Campania to a friend?
Campania is the land where the ancient Greeks left their soul and the world fell in love with mozzarella. The Greek heritage of the region, visible at Paestum in temples that predate the most famous sites in Athens, is something most visitors never connect to Campania. The mozzarella, the buffalo mozzarella produced around Paestum and the Cilento plains, is something most visitors encounter in a lesser form long before they reach the region where it is actually made.
Q. What do you want people to understand about the region before they arrive?
That Campania is much more than the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. The famous coastline is one stretch of a much longer coast. The famous ruins are one of several extraordinary ancient sites. The famous food is one corner of a regional food culture that includes some of the best mozzarella, pizza, and seafood in Italy. If you arrive thinking Campania is two places, you will see two places.
Q. And what do travellers who give it more time tend to find?
They find the Cilento. They find Paestum at the right hour, before the coach parties arrive. They find a buffalo mozzarella that is made that morning and eaten before lunch. They find the Royal Palace of Caserta, which most itineraries skip entirely. They go home arguing about which part of the trip was the best, and almost never put the Amalfi Coast first.
Campania is the land where the ancient Greeks left their soul and the world fell in love with mozzarella.
Where do locals actually send their friends in Campania?
Alessia's answer is south of the famous coast, and she is direct about which stretch of coastline she thinks travellers misuse.
Q. What's one place in Campania that travellers consistently miss?
While everyone flocks to Pompeii, they often miss Paestum and the Cilento Coast, where you can find the best-preserved Greek temples in the world and pristine, hidden beaches. Paestum sits about an hour south of Salerno and contains three Doric temples in an extraordinary state of preservation, older than the Parthenon and far less visited.
Q. What is the Cilento and why does it matter here?
The Cilento Coast, running south from the Gulf of Salerno, offers beaches that have not been absorbed into the resort infrastructure of the more famous coastal stretches. It is also a UNESCO biosphere reserve running for more than 100 kilometres of mostly undeveloped coastline, with old fishing villages, walking trails, and a food culture built around the sea and the mountains behind it.
Q. And what would you call beautiful but overrated in Campania?
Many people visit the Amalfi Coast, and while it is beautiful, it can be overrated in terms of value for money. I think the Cilento Coast offers a much more authentic and relaxing experience for a fraction of the price. I am not telling you to skip Amalfi. I am making a specific argument: the Cilento delivers what many visitors are looking for in Campania at a different price point and without the congestion.
Q. So if a traveller has six nights, how would you split them?
Two nights in or near Naples, two nights in the Cilento, and the remaining two nights as you like (Amalfi if you want it, the Cilento for longer if you have fallen for it, or a base near Paestum for the ruins and the mozzarella). Splitting the trip into a city, a coast, and an ancient world feels more like Campania than two days in Amalfi and a day at Pompeii ever will.
How to Spend 48 Hours in Campania
Two days is short for this region. Alessia's plan is a city day and a choice between two very different kinds of grandeur.
Q. If someone only had 48 hours in your region, what would you tell them to prioritise?
I would suggest spending the first day through Naples' historic centre for its incredible energy and street food, and dedicate a morning to Pompeii to walk through history, or maybe the Royal Palace of Caserta, a UNESCO-listed masterpiece of architecture and gardens that is second only to Versailles.
Q. What does the Naples day look like?
Walk Spaccanapoli and the Quartieri Spagnoli. Eat sfogliatella at a pasticceria, fried pizza from a street stall, and sit-down pizza at one of the historic pizzerias that defined the dish. Visit the Cappella Sansevero for the Veiled Christ. End the day with an espresso at the bar before dinner, because that is what the city does. The Naples day is about letting the city be itself: loud, layered, and full of food at every corner.
Q. And the second day, Pompeii or Caserta?
Pompeii is a city stopped in time, and the right choice if you have never been. Caserta is a palace designed to outperform Versailles and, in my view, the gardens make a compelling case for doing so. If you have already seen Pompeii, do Caserta. If it is your first trip and the ancient world is the reason you came, do Pompeii in the morning and the National Archaeological Museum in Naples in the afternoon (which has the best of what was found at Pompeii).
Q. What mistake do you see travellers make most often?
A common mistake is sticking only to the famous spots and missing hidden gems like the Royal Palace of Caserta, or the wild beauty of the Cilento Coast. Caserta is close to Naples by train and yet rarely appears on the standard Campania itinerary. The Cilento is far enough from the famous coastal resorts that most visitors to the region never reach it. Both represent the part of Campania that rewards slightly more effort and slightly more curiosity.
When to Come to Campania
Late spring is her answer, and the reasoning is the Cilento.
Q. What's the best time of year to visit Campania?
Late spring, between April and June. The region is vibrant and green, the days are long, and it is the perfect time to explore the Cilento Coast before the crowds arrive. The summer months bring more visitors and more heat to what is already a warm region.
Q. What about September and October?
September is a strong second answer. The sea is at its warmest, the air is still summer, and the coach traffic has thinned by the end of the month. October is quieter but the weather is more variable, and the smaller restaurants along the Cilento start to close as the season winds down. If you want a sure thing, April to June. If you want warm sea and a quieter coast, the back half of September.
Q. And the months you would steer travellers away from?
August on the Amalfi Coast. The combination of Italian holiday traffic, international visitors, and a road that was not built for either is the worst version of the region. The Cilento survives August better because it is bigger and less developed, but even there the beaches near the towns fill up. If you can only come in August, base yourself further south in the Cilento and you will still have a good trip.
What to Eat and Drink in Campania
Alessia's food answer is one product. The version available at the source is a different product from what travels.
Q. What local food is non-negotiable in Campania?
A must-try is the authentic Buffalo Mozzarella, especially in the Paestum area. It is so creamy and flavorful that it is often called the white gold of our region. The buffalo mozzarella produced around Paestum comes from herds of water buffalo that have grazed these plains for centuries.
Q. Why does the location matter so much?
Because the version available here, eaten fresh on the day it is made, is a different product from anything exported under the same name. The texture, the milk fat, the slight tang of the curd, the warm centre when it is genuinely fresh. None of this travels. You can eat mozzarella that calls itself the same thing in another city, in another country, and you will not have eaten this. I consider it non-negotiable, and in this particular case that is not an overstatement.
Q. And what to drink with it?
Fiano di Avellino or Greco di Tufo for the whites, both from inland Campania and both serious wines. For reds, Aglianico from Taurasi, one of the great southern Italian reds. With mozzarella, a glass of cold Fiano is the local pairing. With pizza, beer is just as acceptable as wine here, and the local craft scene around Naples is taken seriously by people who know.
Alessia's Campania is not the postcard. It is the wider region the postcard sits inside: a city that does not slow down for visitors, a stretch of coastline that does not need to, a set of Greek temples that have been standing for longer than anything more famous, and a piece of fresh mozzarella that simply will not arrive intact anywhere else. Visit in late spring. Drive south. Eat the white gold at the source.
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