Aquileia

Founded as a Roman colony in 181 BC, Aquileia became one of the largest cities of the empire, a river port and road junction with a population estimated in the tens of thousands, before being destroyed by Attila in 452 and declining permanently. Today it is a village of a few thousand. The basilica keeps the floor of an early fourth-century church beneath the later building, about seven hundred and sixty square metres of mosaic showing fishing scenes, animals, portraits and a struggle between a cockerel and a tortoise, viewed from raised walkways. The forum, river port and a crypt of frescoes survive. UNESCO listed it in 1998.

What you actually see

• The mosaic floor - 760 square metres of fourth-century work under the basilica.
• The river port - quays and warehouse foundations along the old channel.
• The frescoed crypt - twelfth-century paintings below the church.
• The archaeological museum - finds from a city that vanished.

When to go

April to October; the basilica closes for services and keeps a midday break in some seasons. Summer on the plain is humid with mosquitoes.

Honest expectations

Most of the Roman city is unexcavated farmland, so the site is smaller than the history suggests. The mosaic is seen from walkways only. The village has few services.

Nearby

Grado lies south on the lagoon; Palmanova is north.