Blogs from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, Europe - page 12

Just outside of Grado is the town of Aquileia, home to the Archeological Museum and a large number of Roman ruins and artifacts. Apparently Aquileia was one of the 4 most important cities in the Roman empire at one time, with a key location for trading with northern peoples. We spent several hours in the museum and surrounding gardens. In the museum, we saw oil lamps, jewelry, coins, pottery, glass perfume bottles, and many other artifacts of daily Roman life. There were slabs of rock with Latin writings and pieces of massive mosiacs just stacked in the gardens, far too many to display properly in the museum! Not far from the museum is the Basilica, dating back to 313 AD. The floor of the church is a huge, beautiful tile mosiac. You can also pay to ... read more

En route to Grado, Italy from Milstatt, Austria, we stopped for lunch in Udine, Italy. Driving from the autostrada to the center of town was a bit of a trick. In Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, the center of town is denoted on road signs as "Zentrum." When we got into Italy, this disappeared and I (correctly) deduced that a simple target symbol meant the same thing. We diligently followed the target signs which took us past a shopping complex, a sports stadium and into what we can only describe as looking like the parking lot of a Nordstrom's back home! None of the cities in Europe have freeways into the center of town - they may have an exit for "south of town" and "north of town" but never an exit that plops you right downtown ... read more

Geo: 45.8189, 13.176This morning I caught a bus to Credavagno, then a train to Trieste. Once in Trieste I caught a bus to Montemare, which is 7kms out of Trieste. I was here to see Maximillian's cliff top castle- excellent castle, love it, great location, has its own beach. Then caught the bus back to Trieste. Walked around the city, didn't appear to be much to see or do. Had lunch at a sidewalk cafe, while eating I was annoyed by a man trying to sell me a second hand looking book in Italian. i just shook my head, didn't want him to know what languages I spoke. Walked up the hill to the castle to find that it was closed for restoration. The castle had really good walls. Saw an old roman arch and arena ... read more

Era da troppo che non facevo un viaggio in famiglia. Noi in realtà non viaggiamo spesso, anche se a tutti i componenti piacerebbe farlo di più. Così per queste vacanze siamo andati a Udine, che uno non se lo aspetta, visto che non è esattamente una meta turistica, ma è un posto davvero gradevole, tutto sommato colorato, tranquillo e vivibile. con dei centri commerciali notevolissimi. :)... read more

18/10/2005 - We finally made it to Maniago after traveling through some very beautiful countryside. The roads were so narrow, when we came into the towns the mirrors of the car almost scrape the edges of the buildings. Robert is becoming very professional at avoiding accidents with the locals on tractors and those three wheeled, two stroke utility vehicles they drive. We went directly to a place called Campagna, 5kms east of Maniago. Wel, almost directly, we had to stop and ask for directions once, the guy we asked just happened to be a cousin of the folks we were looking for! The people we were to visit are my mothers cousins. Unfortunately they were not home so we were to return in the evening. We found a place to stay then took a walk around ... read more