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)?

Roman geek reporting for duty - the Roman Museum in Nimes is ace!

A lot of Southern French towns have varying amounts of Roman stuff - Beziers, Lyon, Marseille for starters.

If you like Germany and want to go by train Cologne is a good shout. It is the former Colonia Agrippinium. There is a massive Roman museum by the Cathedral - currently closed for rennovation (there is a smaller temproary museum not far away) but check when it is scheduled to reopen.

Also Nimes and Lyon still hold events in their amphitheatres if that's your bag.

Yes, a friend who was there for work recently came back raving about it.

I think we’ve settled on Nimes. It sounds perfect.

We can get to the Pont du Gard from there as well can’t we? I’ve been but would happily go there many times.

You can. It is a bit of a faff by public transport - If I recall there is a bus route near by.

Don't go to Nimes Pont du Gard station - it is no where near Nimes or Pont du Gard. It is a TGV station in the middle of nowhere!

Thank you @Ginmonkeyagain . I got the bus there from Avignon once, so at least I know where the bus stop is.

Not European med but Tunisia has some really good Roman sites including the Roman city of Carthage , well OK it may not have been Roman originally.

Tunisia is North Africa and involves flying @CharlotteCChapel but thank you anyway.

I know you’ve made a choice and this requires a flight but I was very impressed by Salamis (Northern Cyprus)!

@MarjorieDanvers funnily enough I started a thread a few weeks ago asking for family holidays with a sandy beach and ruins (there’s a theme 😁), so I’ll have a look. Thank you.

I’m never going back to Tunisia though.

Cyprus is a great place for a holiday - lots of Roman sites on both sides (although Salamis is impressive!)

Then you probably won’t be going to Algeria either , where I grew up. Breathtaking Roman ruins- Djamila, Tiddis, Tipasa and more. Sorry just had to show off.

@MinnieMountain as a side thought as you are a Roman geek, have you read any of the Falco mysteries? I love the details of Roman life in them.

I’ve not heard of those @GnomeDePlume . I’ll have a look. Thank you.

Loads of sites in Cyprus.

Paphos harbour fort
Dionysus mosaics
Kourion theatre
Nymphaeum/public baths

Also non Roman ancient sites such as Kolossi Castle and Tombs of the kings and Temple of aphrodite.

You could spend a week doing nothing but travelling around looking at the ancient sites.

They're really good (although I find the language a bit grating at times). Simon Scarrow is excellent in the Rosemary Sutcliffe vein.

ETA also Simon Turney - some of his books are more political rather than militaristic.

There are lots of places in Spain (Merida already mentioned). I also highly recommend a trip to Segovia to see the Roman aqueduct. It’s stunning. Easy to get to from Madrid.

Salamanca is also gorgeous. About an hour from Madrid.

For anyone who hasn't figured this out yet I am going to share something I have just discovered which has blown my mind a bit. Go on to chat GPT and ask a question like this, obviously with your own specific details:
Give me a 2-week itinerary based around Trier in Germany. I like Roman ruins, I like wine, I like hiking and I like good restaurants. Include recommendations for 5 different hotels at different price points with links and give me restaurant recommendations for restaurants with different cuisines.

Oh my God! It is an actual game-changer. It gives such a great selection of info on things to do and see and places to stay and you can follow up with clarification questions. I swear, this takes so much of the legwork out of looking for info. I love it. All I need to do now is book the bajillion places I have now got great itineraries for 😂

If you ever decide to fly, Jordan is just a Roman geek fest. It is also such a history buffs dream for other areas, if I could make one flight, it would be up there.

And Orange nearish by. We stayed in Avignon which was good for accessing both towns.

@Raquelosoh my!! Just tried this to plan my August trip to Germany! Unbelievably brilliant!! Thank you!! 🤩

I’m a bit scared of flying, so I try to avoid it.

Getting the train in this particular case is because friend and I feel that it would be less of a faff than flying for a long weekend. We’re only an hour on the train from St Pancras.

Can I ask why you wouldn’t go back to Tunisia? 😬

i know you’ve chosen, but another vote for Trier. Really lovely and so many things to see. Plus the bonus of lovely German food and hospitality!

Aquileia in NE Italy is fascinating. It was a hub for trade and also a mint, so you can trace the trade routes by the coins that have been found. The whole city has been excavated and you can easily spend 2 days there.
Youre close to Venice and seaside towns like Jesolo. I prefer Caorle and used to take the kids for the clean, low water beaches.