Aquileia, Part 1

It was Zack's turn to plan a day trip and he hit a home run. We visited the ancient Roman city of Aquileia. Nicknamed by historians the "Second Rome," during its heyday, Aquileia was the second largest city and sea port in the Roman Empire. Founded around 80BC, the city grew to about 200,000 residents before being destroyed by Attila the Hun in 452AD. It is considered the most complete example of a Roman city. 

This is the first thing we saw when driving into town, ruins of the forum.

A modern road runs through the middle of the ruins so it took a moment to really understand what we were seeing. At first glance, they almost look like trash but once on foot you notice these two staring at you

We then made our way into town, parked in a huge lot with only two other cars, and started walking towards the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta. It was pretty chilly out, and cloudy, so we were all bundled up with HB nestled in his baby ruck sack. In just a few short minutes we saw this

Which then opened up to this

Now I have to admit, I wasn't super excited to be going to see a church. As I've noted before, they fail to make me happy on the insides. However, upon closer inspection of that little monument in the front, I could tell this wasn't going to be your typical church.

I'm new to all this Roman architecture stuff so maybe this is common, but I was not expecting to see a statue of Romulus and Remus featured so prominently at a house of worship. I suppose that's Italy for you, Paganism mixed in with Christianity (more on that later).

The present structure was erected in the 11th century and rebuilt in the 13th however it's apparent to even the most amateur observer that there were others here much earlier.

Italian natives were not the only ones who settled here. As is obvious here, the Celts were important early contributors to the city as the masons of the 12th century used some of their old masonry. The stroll around the outside, I think, was HB's favorite part of the trip. He ran everywhere, explored the cemetery and played in the gravel. Oh, the little things in life. If only we were all so easily amused.

Surprisingly, the inside of the basilica was devoid of typical ornamentation. Hands down, my favorite part was seeing the mosaic floor. They don't let you take pictures but you can check out Google's if you'd like. Honestly, the pictures do them no justice. The mosaics are amazing and predate the existing structure by at least nine thousand years. I did manage to sneak into a corner to take one picture, however, of my second favorite part of the basilica: the entire ceiling which was covered with the Star of David! 

Probably the most frustrating part of site-seeing in Italy is most things are in Italian, as are the docents. Nothing I could find on the interwebs thus far has explained the reason for this, but I did discover that in addition to Celts, there was a very large Jewish population in Aquileia from the time of its founding. They were glass makers, and glass was a central export of the area. This author asserts that the early Christians built over existing Jewish temples and suppressed the history. I am now thoroughly obsessed with finding out more information.

We declined to pay the 4 and 3 euros each to enter the two crypts at each end of the basilica and will save that for next time when you come to visit. I understand there are some amazing frescoes and more remains of the original structure so I'm pretty excited to go back (that means hurry up!). 

Attached by a portico is what appears to be the remains of a pagan temple with a baptismal font built over it. This is one creepy room! I can almost hear the witches chanting Twist the bones and bend the back. Itch-it-a-cop-it-a, Mel-a-ka-mys-tic-a.

After the bassilica we headed over to the Archeological Museum. Apparently we were the first patrons of the day and shockingly, they followed us around again. HB was starting to get hungry and cranky but since we were the only ones there he again had free reign. It's a pretty small place with three stories and we did get to see the whole thing. The first floor is all bodies and heads. Shit cracks me up. Oh, this person is awesome lets make some life size stone likenesses of him/her (-OR- I am awesome so let's make some stone likenesses of ME!) But oh no! Now we hate them to lets chop off their stone head and bash in their face! There was one especially morbid brass head that was found in the bottom of a well. They surmise he was an emperor but are unsure. Because the thing is metal instead of the face loosing pieces as the stone ones do, this one was just bashed in which gave the lifelike face a "WTF these people just chopped off my head" look about him. I shudder like a hyena every time I think about it (MUFASA!!).

The museum was able to bring us what our last outing did not, a toilet to talk about!!! Two, actually. The first was in the men's.  This beaut is similar to the one I encountered in Palmanova except it doesn't have the dandy foot shaped platforms. If Zack had to #2 he didn't try so he fared ok.

This monstrosity was what was in the women's/ handicapped bathroom. Hopefully you can't see what the person before me left in it. What is cool about this is, unlike in the US where nasty women like to hover and pee all over the seat so other people who want to sit down can't, you HAVE to stand up and hover because there is no seat. The uncool thing is, if you are effing handicapped, how the hell are you supposed to hover over a damned toilet?!!!! Seriously. 

The major bummer of our trip was, once again, we couldn't find a place to eat. Well, technically, we found five, including the two we had researched and planned to visit, but they were all closed. I'm unsure if it was the holiday or time of year, but most of the adjoining shops and cafes were closed. We fed HB in the car since he had gone full HB and started to act like my arm was a tasty cobra. We had the intention of trying one place we saw on the drive in afterwards but on the off chance it was closed we didn't want to prolong the crazies. We were so happy to find a pizzeria that was open a few minutes down the road, however, when we opened the back door we saw HB's eyes were almost closed (Little bugger wore himself out!) and neither of us had the heart to rouse him.

Zack was smart and packed himself and apple and fiber bar so we each got to have something for the trip home. Next time we WILL pack lunches for everyone.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. On our way out of town we saw these scary things:

If you are guessing those are life size scare crows (at least one with a witches hat) on a pile of kindling soon to be lit, you would be correct.  And the big one will be lit on the epiphany. This custom is popular in northern Italy and it is called Panevin (feast of bread and wine). Panevin, a pagan ritual some say brought by the Celts, previously took take place on the 25th of December but was moved to the epiphany (January 5th) by Christians after they claimed the date for themselves in an effort to stop the Saturnalia carnival. The lady on top is burned as she was a symbol of the bad things that happened throughout the year. Now they say the fire is what leads the three wise men to the baby Jesus. Also at this time Italians celebrate La Befana, also known as Pasqua Epiphania, a witch who left gifts for children in their stockings. I'm unsure of how  Panevin and La Befana are related but there are some legends that say La Befana had some involvement with the wise men, helping to direct them as well. Crazy, huh?!

We hope to return to Aquileia to view the crypts and other active archaeological sites around the town. Each site is all nicely marked with signs (some of which are thankfully in English). We did see this one close to the basilica:

this is a typical house of a wealthy Roman family; the others were too far to walk with our time constraints and the lousy weather. There are supposed to be more buildings, warehouses, and another Paleo Christian museum. We liked the baby ruck sack and so did HB. It was easier to get around without the stroller. It has a big enough pocket to store snacks and a diaper although I've yet to see a suitable place to change a baby on any of our day trips.

More than likely you won't hear from me again until the end of the month when we make our first big trip to Sicily! But who knows, we may make another little day trip before then. There is just so much to see here it's hard to contain myself!