Salerno

There is a cathedral and botanical garden, and its a pleasant low-key city, but really nothing in Salerno can hold a candle to the Greek temples at Paestum, a short train ride away,

How much time do you have?
My wife and I stayed in Salerno this April/May and one of our day trips was to Paestum.
That was the best day of our trip.

We've been to Athens and this was like walking into a small Acropolis - you can walk into 2 of the 3 temples.
And they are in good shape (compare to the knocked-down ones in Delphi.

The ruins of the houses are a lot worse than Pompeii but you can wander into them.
The walls are only 1-3 feet high
They have some worn mosaics

Visit the temples on Paestum
Beautiful sight and easily done by train or bus from Salerno
Doesn’t need a full day-we took 9:30 train visited sight and museum, had lunch and returned on 2:30 train

Check train schedule carefully there is a gap in service late am til early afternoon

There are also buffalo mozzarella farms in the area
If your cruise offers an excursion that includes the temples and a mozzarella farm do consider that
The farms are difficult to get to without a car

There is plenty to like about daytripping on your cruise in Salerno, a bustling real Italian city of 110,000. The Old Town is charming, great Napolitan pizza at Pizzeria Trianon right near there. And the vertical gardens are wonderful as well.

But if you don't think you can get down to Paestum and back in time--even though it's short trip of 40 minutes by Freccia train, you might not have that much time in Salerno once you actually step on ground--you could do far worse than just wandering, shopping and eating for a few hours. You won't see anything quite like Salerno in the rest of Italy or Greece.

We used Salerno as our home base a few years ago, and we loved strolling round the Old Town area with all its quaint shops and restaurants. Salerno also has a lovely seaside promenade called the Lungamare. Every evening in this very authentic Italian town, the locas get all dolled up and participate in the passeggiata--- the evening stroll---- to walk and socialize. That is an experience in itself!!