5 Best Sights in The Veneto and Friuli–Venezia Giulia, Italy

Trace the area's history here and learn about the importance of Cividale and Udine in the period following the collapse of the Roman Empire. The collection includes Roman mosaics and epigraphs as well as weapons and exquisite jewelry from 6th-century Lombard warriors, who swept through much of what is now Italy.

The archaeological holdings of this museum in a 15th-century former monastery consist largely of the donated collections of Veronese citizens proud of their city's classical past. You'll find few blockbusters here, but there are some noteworthy pieces (especially among the bronzes), and it is interesting to see what cultured Veronese collected between the 17th and 19th centuries. The museum complex includes the Teatro Romano, Verona's 1st-century theater, which is open to visitors.

In the Piazza Maggiore, the frescoed 15th-century Loggia del Capitano contains the Museo Civico, which displays a collection of eccentric memorabilia—the Italian actress Eleonora Duse's correspondence, the poet Robert Browning's spinet, and portraits of the noble Caterina Cornaro (1454–1510). There is also access to the nearby medieval tower, Torre Civica, partially rebuilt after an earthquake in 1685. It affords great views just above its handsome 18th-century clock, designed by Bartolomeo Ferracina, the genius engineer behind clocks in Venice's Piazza San Marco and Sant’Antonio da Padova. Temporary exhibitions are also staged in the tower, along with guided tours. Those after a woodland stroll should head up to the 1,000-foot Monte Ricco medieval hilltop fortress La Rocca—the views are fabulous but the structure itself is sometimes off-limits.

On the hill near the Castello, this eclectic collection showcases statues from the Roman theater, mosaics, and a wealth of artifacts from Egypt, Greece, and Rome. There's also an assortment of glass and manuscripts. The Orto Lapidario (Lapidary Garden) has classical statuary, pottery, and a small Corinthian temple. The collection was renamed in 2018 after the pioneering art historian and Hellenist J. J. Winckelmann, who was murdered in Trieste in 1768.

What started out as an early-Christian 4th-century suburban basilica was transformed in the 9th century into a monastery and then a farmhouse. Now it's a museum: some of the fragments of 4th-century mosaics preserved here are even more delicate than those in the main basilica.