Sunday 24th September 2023 – Camping Aquileia, Aquileia, Italy

 

The port area of Aquileia is a very short distance from the campsite and is the natural route into the centre of the Roman city. We walked along by the remains of the port, a raised bank provided a good view down onto the docks and also separated the remains from a modern river. This was a major Roman port, receiving goods from all of the empire via a canalised river leading to the sea. The scale of the port was impressive – the river was 48 metres wide and 8 metres deep and a section opened up to over 60 metres wide to allow ships to turn. There are significant remains of the warehouses and docks, complete with stone loops used to tie up the ships.
We moved on to the Domus di Tito Macro. Set back from river, this was obviously a very high status, large villa with lovely mosaics. Like many houses in Aquileia, most of the mosaics are monochrome (black & white) with the polychrome mosaics reserved for the rooms used to impress visitors. The remains are preserved under a roof and while the raised walkways allow a good overview of the villa, it is also possible to walk through the corridors and see the rooms and mosaics close up. One of the rooms fronting onto the major Roman road was a bakery with part of the oven still in place and an opening allowing sales of the products. The villa grounds have remains of more mosaics, presumably from the surrounding houses.
We then moved on to the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta. We knew that this was an important site but we were staggered by the sight when we entered. Huge polychrome Roman mosaics cover most of the floor of the large church and the quality is superb. The mosaics mostly cover Christian themes such as the scene of fish and fishermen. Using the FVG card, we were able to download an audio guide that covered most of the sites in the city and this was particularly useful for the basilica as it explained the mosaics very well.
We decided to try the restaurant next to (and probably under the same ownership as) the campsite. La Capannina was very posh inside and the service was excellent. They concentrated on fish dishes – Jane had a whole sole and I fancied the brill but that wasn’t available so I went for the mixed grilled fish. Both were excellent and the fish was beautifully cooked. Together with potatoes, a mixed salad, half a litre of Friuli white wine and some sparkling water, the total bill was €65.90 (£60 ish), which was very reasonable considering the quality of the food.

Photos: Part of the dock of Aquileia port - note the perforated stone (in the middle of the picture) used to tie up the ships; The house of Tito Macro; And one of its polychrome mosaics; The curtain mosaic in the apse of the Episcopal Palace (next to the basilica); The Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta; One section of the huge mosaic in the basilica; Detail of the basilica mosaic – the fishers of men.

Saturday 23rd September 2023 – Camping Aquileia, Aquileia, Italy

 

Time to move on just a short distance to the Roman city of Aquileia and Camping Aquileia, a much smaller and more relaxed campsite.
Aquileia is the only(?) Roman city in Italy that has not been built over by modern developments and therefore the remains are extensive, with huge amounts still to be investigated. We knew that there was lots to see in Aquileia and knew that it would take more than a day to see it, so we decided that, after lunch in the van, we would visit the museum today and visit the rest of the city tomorrow. We checked in at the tourist information office and got a map and then walked to the museum.
I thought that the Winckelmann museum in Trieste was brilliant but the Aquileia is even better. Well-presented exhibits explain the history of the Roman city and the quality is exceptionally good. With my involvement in creating replica Roman mosaics, it was the genuine articles that really impressed me. The use of different sizes of tesserae, from 20mm down to 2 or 3mm stone cubes allowed them to produce wonderful detail and the workmanship was of the highest quality. The unswept floor mosaic and the vine leaf and ribbon mosaics were my favourite. On the top floor was a superb collection of Roman seal stones and cameos. They are currently refurbishing the outbuildings in the museum gardens where there are many inscribed stones and more mosaics. I look forward to a return visit once they have completed that work.
It turned out that it was Heritage Open Days in Aquileia but unfortunately the tourist office didn’t tell us that so we missed the opportunity to visit many excavations in the town and chat with the archaeologists. I did manage to visit one site by the campsite and had an interesting chat with the professor from Venice University who did her PHD in University College London and her dissertation on Roman Britain. She spent much of her time travelling Britain and her favourite county was Somerset! They were excavating an area by the port of the city and had found storage area and evidence of a 9^th century limekiln when they were producing lime from the stones of the Roman buildings.

Photos: A very realistic early Roman stone carving; Part of an unswept floor mosaic from the city; The bow of the gorgeous vine leaf and ribbon mosaic; Two examples of seal stones – a soldier and a dancing woman; One of three piles of Roman cinerary urns in the museum grounds.

 

Friday 22nd September 2023 – Camping Mare Pineta, Sistiana, Italy

 

The forecast was very bad today – light rain followed by much heavier rain and thunderstorms. However, there was blue sky and white clouds when we left the campsite to catch the bus into Trieste.
WE intended to go to the tourist information to get the audio tour of Trieste (free with the FVG card) but decided to admire a little more of the architecture before climbing the hill to the castle and the J.J. Winckelmann Antiquities Museum.
The first stop was the post office – the most ornate one that I have ever seen. It was built by the Habsburgs who were the inventors of the modern postal system. Then on to San Spiridon, the Serbian Orthodox church with its impressive paintings, mosaics and iconostasis. We wanted to visit the Greek Orthodox church, San Nicolo dei Greci, but refurbishment work meant that it was closed to visitors.
Up the hill then to the museum. The J.J. Winckelmann Antiquities Museum actually consists of two parts – a lapidarium (collection of archaeological stone artefacts) and a formal museum. We walked down through the lapidarium and were very impressed but when we got to the museum, we were blown away. The Bradt guidebook suggested that the museum was dusty and poorly organised. Either the authors saw it on a bad day or it has been drastically improved since. Yes, the display cabinets are old fashioned but the finds are extremely good. Winckelmann died in 1768 and was a collector of antiquities but, unlike most collectors of that period, he was fastidious in his recording of the items in the collection. He loved ancient art and collected the most exquisite items. I have never seen so many entirely intact items of Roman glass, Greek, Roman and Etruscan painted vases mostly from Italy but there was a whole room devoted to Cyprian pottery. In addition there were objects from pre-history and Egypt. One of the most impressive exhibits was the Trieste Rhyton – a silver drinking cup in the form of a fawn, which demonstrates beautiful workmanship. I spoke to one of the curators of the museum and told him how much we had enjoyed our visit. The museum is free to visit and he suggested that this was one reason that the museum did not receive the credit that it deserved. I must highly recommend the museum – if you are visiting Trieste, don’t miss it.
In the gardens of the museum were a number of tents set up by a Roman re-enactment group that were there for the weekend. Unfortunately, the event was really happening on the Saturday and Sunday and we were going to be moving on in the morning. We were told about a pizzeria, the Donna Amalia, just a couple of minutes from the museum and we had the best and cheapest pizzas that we have had in Italy for many a year.
Walking back through the museum grounds we headed to the castle with our FVG cards at the ready as they entitled us to free entry. When we got there, we were told that entry was free to everyone. I asked why it was free, expecting to be told that it was some special day – heritage open days or an anniversary perhaps. It turned out that they had an I.T. problem in reception and couldn’t issue tickets! The castle itself is interesting and provides excellent 360° views over Trieste, the sea and into Slovenia.

Photos: Some of the collection of Greek and Etruscan vases; 5^th to 3^rd century BC pottery from Southern Italy; The silver rhyton; The huge pizzas; View over Trieste and its port from the castle.