I stayed three days in Seville in april 2024 where I had spent 4 weeks in 2008 taking part in an intensive spanish language course. I revisited some places,discovered some new places,had a guided tour on the roofs of Seville's cathedral " la Giralda"( fantastic tour with a knowledgeable guide), revisited the alcazar( just horrible,totally overcrowded with tourists and extremely long queues) and a visit to my missing part of the seville's unesco heritage site,the archive of the americas(quite exciting to see the treaty of Tordesillas -which changed the new world- with my very own eyes).

As for Italica I visited it on the 14th of april 2024. I took the bus M170a inside the bus terminal of the bus station "Plaza de Armas" There is an hourly bus to Santiponce/Italica. The archaeological site is just 2 minutes away from the last stop of the bus line M170a.

 

Italica, named Italica after Italy and founded in 206BC, was an ancient Roman city in today's spain and also the first roman settlement on spanish soil. It was also the birthplace of roman emperors Trajan and Hadrian and probably Theodosios.  Most of the old city is now occupied by today's city of Santiponce.

First I visited Italica's small and totally insignificant museum. I then entered the amphitheatre and spent around 20 minutes there. Impressive but nothing from another world when familiar with other roman amphitheatres. I then went to the ruins of the new town visiting all important places there like the thermal baths,the casa of the birds,of the planetary and the Canada Honda,the trajan temple,the exedra and neptun domus,the roman walls and the ancient roman main street.My personal highlight was the casa de los pajaros.

I took me around 2 hours to visit the entire archaeological site and read all the explanations. Visitors with less time need only one hour to see all important components there. I truly enjoyed my visit.As for its OUV I am undecided. All in all I found the Italica site far more interesting and personally far more important than  the inscribed unesco world heritage site near Cordoba,the medina Azahara. I tend to think that Italica should be inscribed on unesco's world heritage list. Besides only a small part of the potential treasures has been excavated so far. And whats more Italica played an outstandingly important role in the western roman provinces.

I had the menu(dish) of the day in a nearby restaurant. The bus driver only warned me not to eat in the one almost opposite the last bus stop of the line......una trampa para los turistas...a tourist trap.

On the way back to Seville I got off one bus stop before I reached the bus terminal "Plaza de Armas" .From there I crossed the street and entered the expo 2008 area with its interesting mixture of abandoned buildings,still wonderful pavillions,new shopping malls and museums,and neglected fountains.