On the road – Day 1 – from Aquileia to Savogna d’Isonzo

Listen to the podcast of this stage of the journey (in Italian): http://radiofrancigena.com/podcast/da-aquileia-a-belgrado-sara-zanni/

A big hello to all of you from Savogna d’Isonzo! Many of you already followed this research project from its beginning, more than one year ago, but for those who are new… welcome! The journey that I’m going to tell in these pages is part o the RecRoad research project, that aimed at reconstructing the Roman itinerary from Aquileia to Singidunum, one of the most important communication axes of the Eastern Roman Empire.

At the end of the archaeological part of the project, the communication action begins and this is the purpose of this journey: walking the Roman itinerary and telling its history along the way.

Yesterday evening, I had the chance to present this project in Aquileia, where Fondazione Aquileia and the Associazione Nazionale per Aquileia hosted the event and I’m very grateful for their support! This morning, after a very stormy night, the journey began. We met in front of the Basilica and started walking along the pedestrian path in the Fluvial Port’s area, then we followed the Via Gemina towards North-east. This was the path of the Roman road to Emona (Ljubljana). By the way, today the Roman road is covered by the modern strada provinciale, so we chose to abandon its course to go towards Fiumicello and reach a nice and more comfortable path along the Isonzo river.

We followed the river for several km, first on the right bank, then on the left one, up to San Pier d’Isonzo, where we paused for lunch, and then to Sagrado. From Sagrado to Savogna d’Isonzo, we had to walk along the strada provinciale, but in a couple of hours we had arrived happily. Now, the Slovenian border is very close: only 4 km away from the church of Savogna. Tomorrow we will cross it and our journey will continue through Slovenia for a couple of weeks. Now the weather is getting stormy again: tonight it is going to rain a lot, but we hope that tomorrow the sky will be clearer.

Thanks for following us! If want to know more about the project, come and meet us in Logatec, where the next presentation is scheduled on September 4th!