Day 11 - Latisana to Aquileia: Layer upon layer upon layer! - It's Italy not Macedonia. Oh well. (2015)

September 28, 2015

Day 11 - Latisana to Aquileia: Layer upon layer upon layer!

I was out early - about 8.30 - and following very secondary roads and non-paved agricultural roads for the first 30km. It was great, but slow.

All pretty typical of the first part of the day really!

I kept passing lots of the little arrow stickers added to poles by the bike tour organising companies or their clients to follow, so I was either on a winner of a route, or the only one to Aquileia. Given the difficulty I had plotting one to avoid the SP14, perhaps the latter?

I entered an area were there was a second language on all the signage. Friulian?

There were many solar energy 'farms' today. This one reminded me it was time to reapply the sunscreen. I also saw a forest close by with a sign that roughly translated said "This is mine. Don't even think about coming onto my land and stealing MY truffles. Now piss off." Also lots of corn and tree plantations.

The wind was picking up a bit by about 11am, so the final 15km or so I jumped back on the main(ish) road in order to get it over with. The road was pretty wide and not too busy, then after the first main turn off to Aquileia, it was very new, wide and completely empty. Score! Then there was an excellent bike path for the last 4km or so.

The bike path into town was straight over the top of the decommissioned railway lines, you could still see them sometimes.

And the bike path took you past the Forum - a 1960s reconstruction as it said everywhere. I assume this means they wouldn't do it like this any more!

After lunch, a phone call home, checking in to my accommodation and washing some clothes - it was time to find the Roman ruins I came to see. Wow! So very cool.

Aquileia was colonised by the Romans in 181 B.C., becoming the forth largest roman town in Italy, before it was destroyed by Attila's invasion in 452. There are ruins visible through the town and many more areas that have been discovered but are still buried, or are under existing buildings. In order to expose the forum area and do some basic reconstruction in the 1930s, people were forced to move and their houses pulled down! The most amazing ruin is of the port.

The town was once an important inland river port (close enough to the sea that there was still tidal activity), a point at which goods from the sea were unloaded, and goods from the land loaded for export. The river has basically completely receded now, but the old banks (particularly on the western side) are visible along with the two landing platforms - for high and low tide - storage areas and steps leading up to the forum and rest ot the town.from the interpretive signs, it was very easy to imagine what it might have been like. I enjoyed the couple of kms of walking and seeing different ruins. Then I went to the basilica.

External Basilica - at least a little bit of it.

I had no idea what to expect. From the outside it is a stunning medieval basilica - I didn't realise what there was to see inside.

And the internal of the Basilica, with the mosaic that they found exposed below the level of the floor of the exisiting building.

A detail of a fresco that still remains. I get the feeling there used to be alot more? It felt like maybe some horrible Baroque and later ornamentation had been removed at some point to strip the building back, as the walls looked very 'original' and plain. Seems unlikely they actually were? Need to do more research on this building when I get home.

The current building was built in the 11th and 14th centuries, and it has wonderful features including a 15th C. hull-shaped timber roof. But the surprise is the mosaic floor of the 4th C. Basilica over which the current (smaller!) church was built. It was discovered in 1909 and exposed to view. I also bought to ticket to get into the crypt (for 11th C. frescos) and the base of the tower, for more excavations of the 4th C. mosaic floor of the 1st basilica; 1st C. mosaiac floors and a well from the roman houses that the basilica replaced; and a 9th C. church which also stood on the site for a time.

Also in the crypt, some tasteful relics.

Under the tower in the more recently discovered section of the original basilica's floor

This is still in the 'other' bit at the base of the tower. So well down to allow you to see the layers of building history and walk around without damaging anything...

The tower, built from stones from the Forum and other ruins.

Preserved from a local house, I think from memory.

Really interesting stuff. As the museum was closed today, I plan to check it out before I leave town in the morning.

Dogs are barking in the yard of the hotel. I hope they stop soon.

P.S. They didn't.

Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 432 km (268 miles)

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