It means the earth, and at the same time liberty....

Do you like Wagner ?" And before he could reply she added in Spanish, with a Creole accent and flashing eyes: "Call me, if you wish, 'the merry widow.' The poor doctor died as soon as we returned to Europe." The three had to run to catch the train ready to start for Paestum.

The landscape was changing on both sides of the way, as now they were crossing over marshy portions of land.

On the soft meadows flocks of buffaloes, rude animals that appeared carved out in hatchet strokes, were wading and grazing.
The doctor spoke of Paestum, the ancient Poseidonia, the city of Neptune, founded by the Greeks of Sybaris six centuries before Christ.
Commercial prosperity once dominated the entire coast.

The gulf of Salerno was called by the Romans the Gulf of Paestum.