National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia

It's hard to imagine that this small italian town of about 3.500 inhabitants was once one of the biggest cities in the known world. It was established in 181 BC by the Romans and almost 2000 years ago,during the times of the Roman Empire, it became one of the main military,trading and economic centers of antiquity with over 100.000 inhabitants. To feel and see some of it's former splendor,you should definitely take a stroll around many archeological sites that are easy to visit in the town. And you should absolutely not miss this splendid Roman museum. Walking through the rooms filled with artefacts, ,objects, statues and stone monuments from those long forgotten times feels like taking a time machine that can make you travel back in time to revive the Roman era for at least a couple of hours. And then you should visit the garden around the museum,where there is an exibition of thousands of Roman urns, columns and tombstones of all kind. Many of them are completely preserved and they have still visible latin inscriptions with dedications to the Gods, to the family members of the deceased and to others. If you are willing to take some time to read them and understand them, you will allow yourself to dive into many different stories of people,who once lived around these parts of the Roman Empire. It's like reading a great stone diary of ordinary women and men from antiquity. And you will find out that they were not so different from us. What to say more. The museum is a jewel. It' a small Rome far from Rome and a great place to get to know our own history. I wholeheartedly recimmend a visit!!