Aquileia

Last weekend we took a trip to Aquileia, which is about an hour or so south east of here, close to the coast.  We only walked and drove around for a few hours, and had lunch near the church (pizza to be exact).

These are the Roman ruins of the Forum in Aquileia.  It was founded in 180 B.C..  Most of the town was destroyed by Attila the Hun in 452 a.d. 

Abbie likes chilling in her stroller.  Most of the time her little leg is propped up like that.

These poppy fields are all over Italy and they’re just beautiful.  I pass about 3 of them on the way to base, and I’ve always wanted to stop and take a picture, but I never have.  Here’s one of them in Aquileia.

This church was originally built in the 3rd century, but was destroyed by Attila the Hun in the 5th century and was rebuilt in the 11th century. This is the baptismal of the church.  It was located on the far right of the picture above. The ENTIRE floor of this church is a mosaic.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  They have a glass walkway around it so you don’t walk on the mosaic but can still see it.

Here’s a close up of the mosaic.  It was made in the 4th century, according to Wikipedia.    We actually paid money to hike up the bell tower, which was neat, but the stairs were atrocious.  They were much bigger than normal stairs are, and completely uneven and there were hundreds of them.  Talk about a leg workout.  Next time I’m not wearing flip-flops… The view from the top was beautiful though, and well worth the climb.

(Yes, Mark wore her on the climb up because A. he’s much more in shape than I am and B. he’s much more sure-footed than I am.)

Aquileia is thought to be the largest Roman city yet to be excavated and is now on the World Heritage List.