Ancient Roman towns in Europe

[MinnieMountain]

A friend and I are currently having a great time being ancient Roman history geeks in Rome. We’ve agreed we’ll definitely do something similar again.

Where are the best towns in mainland Europe for seeing ancient Roman stuff (our technical term)?

Nimes in the south of France

And Pompeii / Herculaneum of course (so nearest town Sorrento or Naples)

I'd recommend Trier in Germany as there's so much to see. The cathedral, Porta Nigra, Imperial baths and so many others. We had a lovely week there visiting all the different sights.

Tarragona in Spain

Southern Albania

Trier is a good shout.

I’ve been to Pompei and Herculaneum and it’s the only ancient Roman stuff bit that friend’s DH wants to go to with her.

Pula, Croatia

Cordoba, Spain.
arles, France

I'd go with Nimes as well..the Pont du Gard is amazing. And still standing after two thousand years!

Merida, central Spain. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has the largest number of Roman ruins in Spain. They are all easy to access on foot and can be seen without rushing over 3 full days.

I had a 4 night stay in between visiting Seville and Cordoba and hired a car to get there. The drive was really easy.

Plovdiv in Bulgaria and Butrint in Albania

Bath!

Split in Croatia is literally built into Diocletian's palace.

Nimes, Arles, Orange in France.

Verona in Italy is beautiful.

Colchester

Glanum near St Remy de Provence.

Empuries near L'Escala, Costa Brava

Orange, Arles, Nimes

Roman Provence fascinates me. It was where Romans went on holiday to escape the heat of Rome.

A brilliant idea for planning holiday trips @MinnieMountain

Trier in Germany, Sevilla in Spain, Circencester

Given that there’s so many brilliant ideas here, I’m going to get fussy 😁

Not Britain. Nice food. Preferably not flying.

Arles, Niems and Trier (because I love Germany) are all top of the list.

Stretching the definition of Europe, but Ephesus in Turkey is fabulous.

Vienne and Lyon on the way to Nîmes for the best food. There's a 2* restaurant next door to the roman amphitheatre in Lyon looking down over the city. You can take the Eurostar + TGV easily

We've also stayed in Uzes on the way to see the Pont du Gard. It's really gorgeous.

If you are going to Arles and Nimes then do take in Glanum (St Remy de Provence) and Orange at the same time. The roman theatre at Orange is spectacular.

Sicily. Greek and Roman stuff!

Smaller scale but we enjoyed Cartagena in Murcia, Spain. It's not as tourist-saturated as bigger sites so we had it almost all to ourselves on a pleasant morning in high season.

Nîmes is super easy on the TGV as the train station is in the town centre.

I concur. I’ve visited the Roman theatre in Orange and it’s so well preserved.