Our day began by saying goodbye to the group.  We dropped them off at the tiny airport of Trieste, Italy (there were only 8 flights leaving the airport for the rest of the day).  Then the 4 of us were off to begin the next leg of our adventure.  I was little giddy trying something new (traveling with pros in such a small group) and the 2 places we stopped didn't disappoint!  First we went to Aquileia, Italy.  Seemed like a tiny town with not much to offer but was I surprised by what we saw.  First we saw the Basilica, which sits on Roman ruins. The basilica has a raised glass walkway so you can see all the mosaics underneath.  It was all so intricate! We also went the Museo Archeologico.  Its collection of artifacts was astounding and the quality of the pieces was quite good.  They had so much collected from the town and surrounding subhurbs that they had a covered walkway surrounding the whole building with all extra, random pieces- their "stone yard".  After that we headed back towards Trieste and stopped at Miramare Castle.  It was built from 1856-1860 for Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian.  Unfortunately he didn't get to live in it long (he lived on the main floor, the upper floor wasn't yet decorated).  Napolean invited him to start a Mexican monarchy but when he went there and declared himself emperor, things did not go well and he was executed. The castle was white and tiny compared to other castles.  The inside was over the top but no pictures allowed (why do they do that?!?!!)  : ( So only pictures of the outside.

The basilica in Aquileia

The crypt that shows many levels of civilizations.

Having fun with some Romans

Miramare Castle