We had to do the Aquileia Museum and it was closed on Mondays (yesterday) so we had to do it in the morning before we left.

On the way we admired the Roman columns at the entrance of the restaurant next door. Everyone has their but if Roman stone. The river today is very quiet – compared to the 46 meter wide river in Roman times.

Work was going ahead on the forum. And we found another dig site we hadn’t seen of Roman houses.

We arrived at the museum. It had been started in 1807 based on the collection of Giandomenico Bertoli who had accumulated huge quantities of finds in his house in the 1700s.

From there the museum has grown huge with enormous amounts of additional excavation finds.

Aquileia was founded in 181BC and grew to a city of 100,000 people. 3,300 people live there now. It has perhaps helped to preserve the remains and it’s nice being able to get around easily with no traffic or crowds.

The first area of the museum showed statuettes from entertainment areas and gravestones.

The grave goods of some wealthy women showed how sophisticated they were. Their jewellery is very similar to today’s.

We then went to the stone carvings storage area outside and inside – and it was huge!!

Lead coffins were thought to be used either for diseased or very rich people.

The Roman Empire ruled here for nearly 500 years here so a lot would have been produced.

There were some impressive mosaics.

There were a large number of what looked like good likenesses if people – probably the rich ones.

These were decorative elements for furniture.

Basic kitchen equipment hasnt changed a lot.

Metal used in housing keys and lights look medieval – not from 2000 years ago.

A grave of an architect contained his metal instruments.

Glass was a new invention for drinking out of.

There was a good view from the top floor of the courtyard with all the stonework round the edges.

There were a lot of metal implements for personal use.

There is a huge display of jewellery and in particular small carved jewels like cameos.

This necklace and earring set looks like one from today.

Not much had been said about the poorer people – in particular about the life of the slave. The whole running of the town depended on them – and yet they are invisible. Maybe they will get to that later.

At last we were finished and we admired the very old grapevine on the way out.

There was a good view of the basilica on the way back to the campsite.

We had our last swim in the lovely pool and then lunch – and then hit the road.

We got to the toll motorway and went through very flat land with mountains in the background.

We stopped overnight at the Camper Stop in Schio next to the Dolomites.

The stop has all the loading and unloading required for a motorhome and is near cafes, restaurants, a launderette and the carabinieri.

It also had an interesting vending machine with cannabis based products. We haven’t seen that before!

It was our last night in Italy so we had to do the double of Aperol spritz (only 3.50 euro) plus pizza.

We took away what we couldn’t eat.

We had a very quiet night being the only motorhome there.