After an amazing day at Tropea (click the name to see the post of Tropea), we hit the road again. Next stop, Salerno.

Travelling by car from one city to another in Southern Italy is easy. The motorways are really good. There are a lot of tunnels from Tropea to Salerno. However, we noticed the driving style is a bit of a worry. A lot of drivers basically were floating between lanes. They like to cut corners when they turn. They also cut you off when they change lanes even when the speed is 130 km per hour. So just watch out when you are on the road. Anyway, it took us more than 5 hours to get to Salerno. We drove along the coastline and stopped in quite a few places to see some small towns. Eventually we changed to motorway and went straight to Salerno.

Compare to some cities we have been to in Italy, Salerno is a decent-sized city. It has a very long history, started probably from 194 B.C. The first medical school in the world, Schola Medica Salernitana, was established in Salerno. The city was ruled/occupied by Goths, Roman, Byzantines, Longboards, Normans and even Spain. Now the city has three areas, the medieval sector, the 19th century sector and the post-war area. It has quite a lot of things to offer, museums, restaurants, night life, shops and so on. It’s also very convenient to travel to Amalfi Coast.

The apartment we booked through Airbnb was only 2 minutes away from Diocesano museum. Of course we had to pop in. It doesn’t seem like a very busy place. On the day, we were the only people in the museum. But the Art collections are stunning. They have painting, sculptures and other artworks from Middle ages to the twentieth century. The ticket is only €2. Remember it is closed on every Wednesday.

The Salerno ivories are beautiful. They were created to illustrate the scenes from the Old and New Testament. Even you are not interested in the stories, the ivory itself is really worth to see.

We walked past the Duomo di Salerno many times. You can’t really miss it. The cathedral was built in 1084 and rebuilt after the earthquake in 1688. We were told it’s considered to be the most beautiful cathedral in Salerno.

I dare say it certainly lives up to its reputation. The mosaic! Wow,  the works are so detailed and beautiful.

The cathedral is dedicated to St Matthew. His remains were brought to Salerno in 954 and held beneath the altar in the vault crypt. The crypt is magnificent, decorated with frescoes, marble decorations and sculptures.

Salerno has beautiful beach front. You can take the ferry from here to Amalfi Coast. There are quite a lot of restaurants there. We enjoyed our seafood two nights in a row. 🙂  It was wonderful. The parking wasn’t very easy at the beach front. We actually just walked from our apartment to pretty much everywhere in the city. It’s so good to just wander and explore.  🙂