When in Rome...errrr, I mean Spain

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Our house is Spain isn't too far from the large city of Sevilla. Really close to the city, 9km to be exact, is the ancient Roman city of Italica. We were both very aware of the fact that the Romans had spread out from Italy and established cities in various foreign lands, but it never occurred to us that there was one in such close proximity. One that we could drive to in under an hour. We were fascinated the moment we heard about it! So one sunny afternoon we headed there with a few of our good friends, Theresa, Shan & Jon (a couple of the pics he took😊.

According to some online searching, Italica is one of the earliest Roman settlements in Spain, founded in 206 BC and was the birthplace of three emperors. The city's amphitheatre, which is almost completely intact, housed up to 25000 people and was the 3rd largest in the Roman empire. Crazy how this is so, yet we had never even heard of this place! Part of the ancient road and some gorgeous mosaic floors are well preserved as well. Apparently the city was abandoned due to the river shifting away from it's normal course. How did this happen? The guess is that siltation due to the removal of forest cover caused the river to shift and the city was left without a water supply. If only we would learn from history!

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Photos

Us
teetering on the edge of the pit in the Ampthitheatre

can you read this?
let us know what it says;)

the statues look so life like!
amy, theresa & shan strike a pose

classy!
theresa & amy during our picnic in the ancient city

on the ancient road
jon, theresa, amy & shan on our way out of the city

Comments

[Nichole]

Classy!
I especially like the one with the wine....hey...that's classy!