| ”Over there, Roman vessels were moored and unloaded in the harbor.” Fulvia, our Italian guide, explained and pointed at a line of huge rocks next to a ditch in a field that was lined by a row of tall cypresses to the right and pine trees to the left. ”A harbor? In this place? But where is the Adriatic sea?” I asked in astonishment and tried to imagine galleys and thousands of legionaries and slaves crowding the narrow piers. ”Aquileia, named after an eagle (aquila in Italian) that circled over this place, was founded 181 years before Christ.” Fulvia told us ”Since those days, the coastline of the Mediterranean has retreated about three miles to the south and the ancient harbor of Aquileia silted up with sand and was covered with soil over the centuries. The place was a busy trade market and the most important headquarter of the Roman legions south of the Alps, when Emperor Augustus declared war on the Teutons.” Then we followed the street Via Sacra and visited Aquileia’s basilica with its huge, ancient mosaic on the floor. The basilica dates back to the 11 th century and was built upon the foundations of a church of the 4 th century. There are other excavation sites and archaeological finds in Aquileia as well, and if you have some more time to stay in that place, you should pay a visit to the Archeological Museum there. It displays lots of statues, sculptures, pottery, bronzes, coins, medals, and personal ornaments that were found during the excavations in and around that historical place. Outside the building, there are several wings, showing mosaics chronologically arranged as well as funerary and other stone monuments that reflect peculiar customs and religious beliefs in those times. When the Huns conquered the region in the 5 th century, the residents of Aquileia fled out of their town and escaped to a small island off the shoreline, where they founded the town of Grado that already became famous when Venice did not exist yet. So Julius Caesar’s ships sailed to Grado first and then went on into the estuary of the river Natisone (river Natissa today) until they reached Aquileia. Grado was a small port of workers and a community of merchants during the Roman Age and is part of a lagoon and a picturesque, small spa town today. Coming from Aquileia, we drove on a road along a narrow strip of land that connects Grado with the mainland. A gentle sirocco, the warm and wet wind from south-east, was blowing, lots of boats and yachts were moored in the small harbor, and we strolled the cramped streets and lanes, passing the cathedral Santa Eufenia and the basilica Santa Maria. After taking a rest and having a huge bowl of Italian ice cream, we drove eastwards, taking a detour via Gradisca, whose name of Slavic origins means ”fortress”. The place gained strategic importance in 1473 when Venice started to fortify the village and changed it to a military stronghold against the Habsburg Empire on one side and the Turkish incursions on the other. Huge, solid town walls, designed by Leonardo da Vinci, still encircle the old city and you pass medieval archways and old houses with the typical Roman shades, when you roam about the cobble-stoned streets. Our next stop was Udine, seat of Aquilea’s rulers in the 13th century. We had traditional pizza in one of the numerous restaurants on Piazza Matteotti, Udine’s market square next to the Baroque church of San Giacomo. After a gulp of red wine, we enjoyed a walk through downtown Udine at night and crossed the square Piazza Libertà, passed the Loggia San Giovanni and the column with the Loin of St. Markus, which reminds of the rulers of Venice in the 15th century. We also paid a visit to the castello, Udine’s castle that rests upon a hill, where we had a nice view upon the town, before we went back to our bed-and-breakfast accommodation with Mrs. McCoy Moreale, a kind American lady who had fallen in love with her Italian husband and this beautiful country many years ago. n
For accommodation and more details, please, send an email to Mrs. Mary Ann McCoy Moreale at mary-jenny@libero.it or visit the website www.bnbchoices.com for further accommodation.
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