Wednesday 19th March 2025 – Seville, Spain

We drove to Italica, a major Roman town just outside Seville. Parking in the town, close to the tourist information office, we obtained a map and were told what the major sites were and their opening times. The Roman theatre, next to the tourist office, is not open to the public except for performances and the lady explained that there were currently two days of plays for children. That explained the many coaches that we had seen parked close by. Fortunately, there is a viewpoint where we were able to see right into the theatre and we could watch part of the performance from there. The audience were probably 16 – 18 year olds and they were very attentive to the dramatic performance of The Trojans by Euripides.
The very small museum at the tourist office did not detain us for very long and we then walked for 10 minutes to the main site of Roman Italica. The site is set on a low hill with good views over the surrounding area and there are many excavated villas with beautiful mosaics and bathhouses. We spent a couple of hours walking around the site before returning to the van.
Close to where we parked, they have almost finished constructing a new motorhome aire and it will probably be ready for the main season. There were no other options to stay in the area, so we moved on to one of the Seville aires. We chose the one closest to the centre of the city. It really is very basic, a large car park on rough ground but it was busy with motorhomes, cars, vans and lorries. At €22 per night, including electricity, it must provide a good income for someone. We were directed to a spot in the middle and shown an electric point at the edge that we could run our lead to. However, the socket didn’t work and we had to move to another place where we plugged into a 4-way extension lead covered with a plastic bag. I don’t think that it would have passed UK regulations! Having said that, it was level, reasonably quiet and comfortable enough for the night.
Photos: The Italica theatre and the performance of The Trojans; Inside the Italica amphitheatre; The spectacular mosaic from the House of the Birds – the mosaic shows 33 different species of birds; Detail of the owl from that mosaic; A geometric mosaic from an Italica villa using the popular 3D effect – do you see a flower or cubes?