I'm heading to Venice soon for a break. I'm struggling tho to find a good list of late Roman/Byzantine sites to visit there. Can anyone advise on the 'must-see' places there?

Cheers,

Gordon

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/watch-elon-musk-visits-the-pantheon-in-rome-shares-incredible-view-of-the-city-at-night-4690716/amp/1

A Roman necropolis at Vatican City has been opened to the public. The site is thought to hold the remains of many working class Romans, including slaves and servants:

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/18/1214000293/vatican-ancient-rome-necropolis

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/venice-international-travel-hotspot-charge-daily-tourists-fee-next-year

After many years of renovation, the Roman baths in Sarikaya, Central Turkey will be finally opened to the public. It is thought to be first constructed in the second century AD. Excavations began in 2014. The thermal mineral springs water reach a temperature of 50C (122F).

https://www.bta.bg/en/news/balkans/500226-2000-year-old-roman-bath-in-central-turkiye-opens-for-tourists-on-august-15

https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/the-roman-basilica-therma-in-yozgat-maybe-the-oldest-thermal-treatment-in-the-world?format=amp

This video shows some of the newest archaeological findings now on display.
 

https://apnews.com/article/rome-ancient-temples-julius-caesar-726e7c504f4a173dbe6ba322fbfabc18
 

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The current route from Italy’s capital to the archeological park of Pompeii is long and somewhat complicated. To arrive by train, you need to first go to the city of Naples, where you change onto a tortuous if scenic regional service called the Circumvesuviana.

The journey involves stops in several small towns around the Gulf of Naples before chugging into the station of Pompeii Scavi-Villa dei Misteri some two hours later.

 

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/04/05/visiting-pompeii-will-be-easier-thanks-to-a-new-high-speed-train-line-from-rome

The trip from Rome can be a challenge as documented by these two goofballs:

A Roman villa in Pompeii known as the Domus Vettorium (House of Vettii) reopens after twenty years of restoration.

Pompeii, Italy - 14 December 2022 1. Walking shot from the gate of the domus that opens, with sign reading (Latin) 'Domus Vettiorum' (House of Vettii), to the atrium

2. Pan left of the triclinium, called 'Hall of Ixion'

3. Various of the frescoes in the 'Hall of Ixion'

4. Walking shot of the peristyle surrounding the garden

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director, Pompeii Archaeological Park:   "The House of the Vetti is like the history of Pompeii and actually of Roman society within one house. So, you have the great artwork, we're seeing here the last phase of the Pompeian wall painting with incredible details so you can stand before these images for hours and still discover new details, and the sculptures in the garden. So, you have this mixture: nature, architecture, art. But it is also story about the social life of the Pompeian society and actually the Roman world in this phase of history."

6. Various of fresco in the 'Room of the Cupids' representing Cupids engaged in various activities and crafts

7. Pan right of the 'Room of the Cupids'

8. Close of a fresco in the 'Room of the Cupids'

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director, Pompeii Archaeological Park:   "The house belonged to two men who were probably two freed men, so they were ex-slaves and then they had an incredible career after that and reached the highest ranks of the local society, at least economically. They evidently tried to show their new status also through culture and through Greek mythological paintings and it's all about saying 'well we have made it and so we are now part of this elite', local elite in the Roman world."

10. Various of fresco in the 'Hall of Pentheus' depicting Hercules as a child choking snakes

11. Pan right of the 'Hall of Pentheus'

12. Various of the frescoes in the 'Hall of Pentheus'

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director, Pompeii Archaeological Park:   "The House of Vettii has always been a case study on how do these paintings reflect the dreams and imagination and anxieties of the owners because they lived between these images. So, on one hand we see Greek myth which is a very learned kind of showing off your knowledge because during the banquets you then had to comment (on) these paintings and you could show that you really understood was going on there. And there is also sometimes some kind of identification."  

14. Various of the 'lararium,' a place in ancient Roman houses reserved for the worship of the Lares (deities in ancient Roman religion)

15. Various of the atrium of the domus, cat walking by

16. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Arianna Spinosa, architect director of restoration work: "This house is one of the iconic houses of Pompeii and represents the Pompeian domus by excellence, not only because of the frescoes of exceptional importance, but also because of its layout and architecture. Today, we can finally read this complexity thanks to the new roofs – both the restoration bits, but also those put in just to protect the rooms that we have found and rediscovered during the restoration, such as the whole 'gynaeceum' area."

17. Various of one of the rooms of the domus called 'gynaeceum'

18. Pan right of one of the rooms of the domus

19. Various of the frescoes

20. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Stefania Giudice, director of fresco restoration:

21. Various of bronze remains of one of the two safes in the atrium

22. Wide of the garden  

23. Walking shot of one of Pompeii's cobbled streets

https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/travel/watch-what-it-s-like-to-take-to-the-skies-in-a-hot-air-balloon-in-the-egyptian-city-of-luxor-1.1228918

I don’t understand this at all. Although I appreciate the enthusiasm to promote the appreciation of Roman Britain, this project seems rather kitschy:

The Casa dos Bicos is a beautiful XVI century palace hosting the José Saramago Foundation and houses archaeological exhibits from various periods, including Roman foundations.

The exhibition presents remnants of a preserved and salted fish production unit from the Roman city of Olisipo (modern-day Lisbon), which was most likely set up next to the fluvial beach of the Tagus River during the 1st Century CE.

A fragment of a Roman wall and semi-circular watch tower also highlights the reinforcement of Roman cities’ defence mechanisms from the late 3rd century onwards, while other archaeological finds show how the Roman wall was subsequently integrated into the Medieval wall.

The ruined Carmo Convent is one of Lisbon's most hauntingly beautiful sights. It was its greatest medieval building, but stands as a reminder of the devastating earthquake of 1755 that destroyed most of the city. Its roof collapsed on the congregation as it was attending Mass on All saints’ Day, and was never rebuilt, but the Gothic arches still stand. Most of the architecture dates back to the 1300s, but Manueline (Portuguese Gothic) windows and other details were added later, in the 16th and 18th centuries.

The sacristy’s small archaeological museum presents an eclectic collection that was donated by archaeologists in the 19th century. Among the treasures from Portugal and elsewhere are the Roman “Sarcophagus of the Muses” and other Roman artifacts. 

The “Gate to Hell” in Hieropolis, Turkey will now be open to the public. It was only rediscovered in 1965 and its “mysteries” explained in 2013:

The explanation for this mysterious religious site is fascinating. At the site, healthy animals were led down by priests to the entrance and they died quickly, but the priests who had accompanied them (miraculously) returned unharmed. These “miracles” had geological explanations:

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“But Pfanz was still mystified by one thing: if this area is so deadly, why did the priests in the Ploutonion not die too? "But because carbon dioxide is heavier than air, at night when it's cooler it pools in the arena, creating a lethal lake of gas at ground level."

His conclusion: the animals, with their noses close to the ground, quickly suffocated in this toxic cloud, but the priests, standing taller, were breathing much lower levels of CO2 and were able to survive.”

 

Here is a wonderful video on the site:

https://greekreporter.com/2022/06/23/ancient-gate-hell-hierapolis/

Hieropolis, Turkey

It is good to see that life is returning to normal post-pandemic. This looks like an interesting exhibit: 
 

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The exhibition entitled ‘Art and sensuality in the houses of Pompeii’, which will be open from the 21st April 2022 until the 15th January 2023, in the Large Palaestra of the archaeological site, aims to illustrate and recount the extent and significance of sensual and erotic subjects in the domus and in the daily life of the ancient Pompeians.

Fresco of Leda and the swan Archaeological Park of Pompeii
 

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The show’s marquee attraction is a fresco of the myth of Leda and the swan. Discovered in 2018, the scene depicts the moment when the god Zeus, disguised as a swan, either rapes or seduces Leda, queen of Sparta. Later, legend holds, Leda laid two eggs that hatched into children: Pollux and Helen, whose “face … launched a thousand ships” by sparking the Trojan War.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-was-erotic-art-so-popular-in-ancient-pompeii-180979988/

http://pompeiisites.org/en/comunicati/art-and-sensuality-in-the-houses-of-pompeii-an-exhibition-to-recount-the-central-position-occupied-by-sensual-and-erotic-images-in-the-domus-of-pompeii/

The pre-invasion Roman helmet, known as the Oyster Helmet of Chichester, will go on display. The mystery is how the helmet got to Britain in the first place.

“A mysterious Roman helmet that pre-dates the Roman invasion of Britain is to go on display at Fishbourne Roman Palace next month. Alongside the helmet, other pre-invasion artefacts – a sword scabbard fitting and an Iron Age crucible – will also be displayed.

The helmet, known as the Oyster Helmet of Chichester, is one of just four Coolus helmets in the UK. It was produced during the first century AD, before the Romans began their conquest of Britain. It was acquired by the Sussex Archaeological Society in 1893, and though much of its journey has been lost to history, it is thought to have been found in the mud flats at Chichester Harbour, just a few miles from the Roman Palace at Fishbourne.

“We know that the helmet was mass-produced, made cheaply for a lower status soldier, because it has very few decorations and was ‘spun’ on a lathe. It almost certainly wasn’t made in Rome. It could even be that this helmet was worn by an enslaved person, perhaps someone from Gaul, a region that spanned across modern Europe, who had been conscripted by the Roman army.

 It could be that a Roman soldier had kept his Coolus helmet even after newer helmet designs had replaced it. Maybe a local person had acquired and had decided to dress in Roman gear, we just don’t know!

"Though the helmet had little in the way of decoration when it was worn, the passage of time has rectified this as, from its years underwater, today it boasts an oyster shell!”

Tom Holland holding the helmet 

https://ace.media/press-releases/gBJM

A Roman bridge, the so-called Ponte Loreto (2nd-1st century BCE) and a Roman road, the Via Astura, are still visible today (signposting for Ponte Loreto is very good from the city centre, so it is relatively easy to get there). The ancient Via Astura connected Antium to Satricum and Lanuvium. (Own pictures)

Temple of Juno Sospes:

In 2012 a sensational discovery was made in Pantanacci, in the Ager lanuvinus (not far from the Sanctuary of Juno Sospes): a votive deposit in a cave containing thousands of artifacts (4th-2nd century BCE), including pottery (also miniatures), anatomical votive offerings among which a series of oral cavities stand out, and last but not least, four elements in peperino bearing engraved scales, part of a majestic statue depicting a snake. It could be the well-known snake sacred to Juno, to which a specific cult was dedicated. (Own pictures)

The Museo Civico Lanuvino is a little gem and the museum itself is scattered around the city (“Museo Diffuso”) as several locations can be visited, such as the room where the Pantanacci votive offerings are on display (albeit a very small part of them, as thousands of objects have been excavated so far!) but also the archaeological museum, where you can find a section with inscriptions, proto-historic pottery, votive offerings, fragments of frescoes, a beautiful winged griffin from the theatre of ancient Lanuvium (2nd century CE) and much more.

Narbonne, France was the site of the important Roman Colonia Narbo Martius. As would be expected, it is also the site of rich archaeological finds. The newly-opened museum in Narbonne looks exciting.

https://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/fosters-roman-antiquities-museum-set-to-open/5115156.article