Sunday, July 26, 2020

Aquileia

Aquileia was one of the Rome's most important cities from the Republic era through the 4th century.

A form of Roman decoration I have only seen at Herculaneum.

Golden flies meant to adorn clothing.

Aquileia was a frontier defense city and a key trade hub.

Which would you like your ashes in?

Piles of Roman stone unearthed in Aquileia

I'm not sure where this would work in my house.

More burial urns

Aquileia is filled with Roman ruins.

A massive Roman burial tomb in the center of town.

A Roman road leading towards Rome

The Forum

Digs are ongoing in Aquileia; this area is being developed to be opened to the public.

Aquileia has many pleasant paths to stroll through the ruins.

Graves from WW1

A mosaic from the baptistery at Aquileia. Aquileia has one of the finest collections of Christian-Roman mosaics in the world.


The Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta contains a massive mosaic.

Turtle vs Rooster, Good vs Evil


Care for a swim?

The roof is pretty astounding as well.

Stair spolia, why not?

An impressive complex, and a must see Roman site

Vienna

Vienna is one of the great cities of Europe. Our first sight was this strange hairy statue next to our hotel.

This is not how I imagined Mark Antony...

The State Opera

An odd way to buy newspapers.

Royalty often had greenhouses to grow citrus year round. The Palmenhaus is now a great Viennese cafe.

The Schmetterlinghaus, or Butterfly house, is next door.

Butterflies year-round!

The Austrian National Library houses important ancient documents from around the world.

The Tabula Peutingeriana is one of the most famous maps of the Roman Empire

The library itself is a work of art.

A fountain outside the Hofburg, one of the may Hapsburg's residences.

Ow

Vienna houses many of the treasures of the ancient city of Ephesus.

Different types of marble found in Ephesus.

12 Gods of an ancient Lycian cult.

Baby with goose

The Ephesus Museum used to house the Jewish museum, which was destroyed by the Nazis. These are artifacts recovered from the museum.

The concept for an automatic begging machine.

The House of Austrian History has many interesting exhibits, like this Trojan Horse used to protest the election of Kurt Waldheim, President of Austria and former Nazi.

Nixon, savior of Hungary

The Papyrus Museum houses some of the world's most critical written ancient history, such as a 2nd/3rd century AD copy of Xenophon's Hellenica.

A Tellurium from the 19th century in the Globe Museum, used to figure out when solar and lunar eclipses will happen.

The Black Camel in Vienna has the best finger sandwiches money can buy.

The plague column

St. Stephen's Cathedral

St. Stephen's was originally built in the 14th century.

The tomb of Emperor Frederick III. You can tour the crypt of the cathedral and see the containers holding all the Hapsburg royalty's entrails.

Starbucks!