Friuli-Venezia Giulia · Udine
Aquileia
A village of 3,128 on a Roman capital of 100,000, where the largest paleochristian mosaic floor in the West runs under a Romanesque basilica.
- Best time
- May–Sep
- By car
- 43 min from Udine
- Population
- 3,128
Known for
MOSAIC FLOOR
The 760-square-meter paleochristian pavement under the basilica, the largest in the Western world, dated to the fourth century.
BURIED ROMAN CITY
Population peaked near 100,000 in the second century AD; most of the imperial city remains unexcavated beneath fields and the modern village.
PATRIARCHATE
Seat of the Patriarchate of Aquileia from the sixth century until the Vatican suppressed it in 1751, governing a vast Adriatic and Alpine diocese.
When to visit
Best · May–Sep
- J9°
- F11°
- M14°
- A17°
- M22°
- J26°
- J30°
- A30°
- S25°
- O20°
- N14°
- D9°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime averages, 2020–2024. The sea is warmest in August at 28° and coldest in February at 10°. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
The festa: Ermagora e Fortunato, 12 July
Why come
Aquileia sits at five meters above sea level on the Friuli plain, ten kilometers inland from the Adriatic at the head of the Grado lagoon. Rome founded it as a military colony in 181 BC. By the second century AD it held close to 100,000 people, was the capital of Augustus's Regio X, and ranked among the nine great cities of the empire.
Attila's Huns sacked it in 452, the population scattered to the lagoon islands, and the surface town never recovered. The Roman city below is largely unexcavated, which makes Aquileia, in UNESCO's words, the most complete example of an Early Roman city in the Mediterranean. Above it, Patriarch Poppo rebuilt the basilica in 1031 over a fourth-century church.
Its floor is the largest paleochristian mosaic in the Western world, 760 square meters of fish, birds, jonah and the whale, uncovered by archaeologists in 1909. The 73-meter campanile uses stone quarried from the Roman amphitheater. The Patriarchate of Aquileia survived until 1751.
The Sunday letter
Aquileia is on our list. Its letter is still to come.
We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Aquileia comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The button takes you to the letter's own page on Substack, where you leave your email. About the letter
Read on
Aquileia in our articles
The best coastal towns within two hours of Padua6 towns, Aquileia among them.
The best coastal towns within two hours of Udine6 towns, Aquileia among them.
The best coastal towns within two hours of Venice6 towns, Aquileia among them.
The best towns with a World Heritage site within two hours of Trieste6 towns, Aquileia among them.
How to get there
From Venice (TSF), about 1h 36m by car.
Verona (VRN) is about 2h 49m away.
By car from the centre of Udine 43 minutes or Trieste 57 minutes.
Coming from Venice?
Coming by train into Trieste Centrale? Aquileia is about 54 minutes away by road.
What to see
Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta
Patriarch Poppo's eleventh-century basilica over a fourth-century church, with a 760-square-meter paleochristian mosaic floor uncovered in 1909.
Campanile di Poppo
Free-standing 73-meter bell tower built in the eleventh century with stone quarried from the Roman amphitheater, raised again in the fourteenth.
Foro Romano
Excavated section of the Roman forum along the Via Sacra, with the bases of columns and reused capitals from the second century AD.
Museo Archeologico Nazionale
Glass, amber, mosaics, gemstones, and the largest collection of Roman portrait busts in northern Italy, from the imperial city below.
Porto Fluviale
Stone quays of the Roman river port on the Natissa, the harbor that linked Aquileia to the Adriatic and to the Danube trade upriver.
Sepolcreto Romano
Stretch of the Via Annia lined with five family tombs from the first and second centuries, the most complete Roman funerary street in the region.
The slow-trip planner
Building a trip? Find where Aquileia fits in a slow Italy circuit.
Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.
Through the year
What happens here
Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.
Festa dell'Unitàpatron saint's feast
usually held across July and August. TrovaSagre
Sagra della zuccafood festival
usually held in October. TrovaSagre
Living here
- Population 3,128, down 7% since 2015
- Commuter belti
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Nearest public hospital Monfalcone, 15 km as the crow flies
- Full fibre reaches 88% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Nearest airport Venice, 1 h 36 min drive
- Regional capital Trieste, 57 min drive
Could you live here?
Aquileia is a village with a town close by.
- A village of 3,128, with Grado (7,658 people) 9 minutes away for the shopping and a meal out. Our rule is a town within 15 minutes.
- Gorizia, a city of 33,506, is 38 minutes by car. Inside our 30 to 60 minutes: close for the services, far enough to keep its own life.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City. The rest of the series, and the best towns to move to, arrive in the Sunday letter.
The button takes you to the letter's own page on Substack, where you leave your email. About the letter
Common questions
- What is Aquileia known for?
- Aquileia is a village of 3,128 on a Roman capital of 100,000, where the largest paleochristian mosaic floor in the West runs under a Romanesque basilica.
- Where is Aquileia?
- Aquileia is a comune in the province of Udine, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, at 5 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Aquileia?
- Venice (TSF), about 1h 36m by car.
- How long is the drive from Udine to Aquileia?
- About 43 minutes by car.
- When is the best time to visit Aquileia?
- Best in May–Sep. July is the warmest month, averaging 30 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 14 rain days.
- Is there a sagra or a festival in Aquileia?
- Yes. Festa dell'Unità and Sagra della zucca. July is when the first of them falls.
- Which other towns are like Aquileia?
- Grado, Numana and Gabicce Mare.
- How many people live in Aquileia?
- 3,128 at the 2023 count.
- Is Aquileia a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Aquileia is a village with a town of 5,000 people within 15 minutes (Grado, 9 minutes). The nearest city, Gorizia, is 38 minutes away by car. The nearest public hospital is in Monfalcone, 15 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 88% of homes.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
Recognised as
The numbers
- Elevation: 5 m
- Population: 3,128
- Surface area: 37.44 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Similar
Towns like Aquileia
Grado
Province: Gorizia
both on the Adriatic coast · both between 3,000 and 10,000 people
Numana
Province: Ancona
both on the Adriatic coast · both between 3,000 and 10,000 people
Gabicce Mare
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
both on the Adriatic coast · both between 3,000 and 10,000 people
Sirolo
Province: Ancona
both on the Adriatic coast · both between 3,000 and 10,000 people
Miglianico
Province: Chieti
both on the Adriatic coast · both between 3,000 and 10,000 people
Gradara
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
both on the Adriatic coast · both between 3,000 and 10,000 people