My visit to the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Aquileia ended on a sombre note with my last stop at the war cemetery just behind the basilica. Aquileia isn’t all about the basilica, there is more to see here than just the church. I saw a sign which pointed to a Domus which I thought meant house. This domus turned out to be a museum with its own entrance fee. There wasn’t much indication as to what is in here and I was too lazy to look it up online, so I paid the small entrance fee and went in.

You can tell that not too many people come here since the guy manning the entrance was just chilling somewhere else and almost looked surprised that someone would come here and visit. This museum is about an unearthed Roman house. From what I have learned from visiting the basilica, the Roman floor mosaics are a huge thing here and this museum is no exception. This looked almost unreal with parts of the floor only partially excavated, exposing the Roman mosaic used in the house. With its proximity to the basilica as well as the elaborateness of the mosaic, this is a good chance that there was someone important who lived here. The excavations exposed different levels of the house. I am not sure if they were all from the same era. But even the lower levels had some sort of mosaic as well. Of course, those looking for an actual house would be disappointed, since all you can see here is the floor, but I think it all more than makes up for the missing house.

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