Avenches & Roman Aventicum

Before Zurich, before Bern, there was Aventicum. Under Rome it was the capital of Helvetia: perhaps 20,000 people, a forum, baths, a theatre, and 5.6 kilometres of wall studded with 73 towers. Vespasian raised it to a colony around AD 72 - his father had lived there. Then it was sacked, abandoned and quarried for its stone, and a small medieval town grew on the hill above the ruins. What remains is unusually legible. You can walk the Roman city in an afternoon and see where each piece of it stood. The amphitheatre held around 16,000 and was built in two stages, the second enlarging it as the population grew. A medieval tower sits on its entrance and now houses the Roman Museum, whose collection includes a gold bust of Marcus Aurelius pulled from a drain in 1939 - among the finest pieces of Roman goldwork ever recovered. Beyond the walls stands the Tornallaz, the last column of the Cigognier sanctuary, crowned for generations by a stork's nest. Forty minutes by rail from Bern. Level walking on grass and gravel, so leave the thin soles at home after rain.