My friend Mauro invited me to spend a day visiting his hometown Adria so I accepted and after getting in my car, I drove the 1 hour and 20 minutes it took to get there. Once I reached the city center I parked the car right across Mauro's grandparents' house and then continued on foot. First he took me to see the Cathedral, which was rebuilt on a much older one in the 19th century. There was a wedding going on inside but we managed to slip past without disturbing and observed a really interesting a decorated coptic marble slab dating from the 4th century. We then passed through the side door and entered the part where the old Cathedral once stood. The building was renovated as the same time of the construction of the New Cathedral, though below ground level is still located the medieval crypt. The crypt is actually the apse of the Old Cathedral which was excavated during the 19th century, and still holds some interesting 11th century frescoes, depicting some of the Apostles. We then visited the nearby Diocesis Museum which had just recently opened and is still planning to expand further. It's look really nice and modern and holds some interesting objects such as various silver goblets, priest clothes and sculptures. Exiting the museum we continued walking and toured the town for a while, crossing the main Canal cutting through the town, the Canal Bianco, and walking along its streets. It was then time for lunch so we headed back to Mauro's grandparents' house where we had a really good pasta with ragu and mixed fried fish, After the lovely lunch we then got in the car and headed to the National Archaeological Museum. The city of Adria used to be an important commercial center already at the time of the Ancient Greeks, it then held an important position during Etruscan times and became even more important during Roman times (it even gave its name to the Adriatic Sea). Thus the area below and all around the town held many artifacts and ruins which are now displayed in the museum, such as Greek and Etruscan vases, jewels and daily objects and many more Roman things such as the impressive glass collection. Together with the Archaeological Museum, one part of the building also hosted the temporary exhibition dedicated to the Chinese state of Chu, which I had already seen a part in Este a few weeks before. Thus we also decided to see that exhibition which had some really cool chinese artifacts dating to more than 2000 years ago, particularly some really interesting swords and spears. To end the day we decided to use the rest of the afternoon and sun bathe in the nearby seaside town of Rosolina, which though sunny and windy didn't deter me from taking a quick swim in the cold April waters.
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| The Cathedral |
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| The 11th century apse of the Old Cathedral |
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| View of the Canal Bianco |
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| The chinese swords inside the Chu exhibition |
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| Greek vase inside the National Archaeological Museum |
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| Roman glassware |
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| The beach of Rosolina |
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