You do not have to go too far or too deep down in Belgrade to find Roman remains. A fair bit of Roman history is buried underneath the city of today. Some downtown areas have been covered or left untouched for years due to lack of budget for an excavation.
About an hour and a half east from Belgrade, near Kostolac town, there is the archaeological site of Viminacium which we visited this past weekend with a couple of friends from Belgrade. Viminacium was the provincial capital of Moesia Superior and a Roman city and military camp that reached at some point the 40,000 habitants.
They have been working for some time at this location and there is still a long way to go.The excavation work is not progressing too fast because of financial difficulties. Right now, there is tourist access to three spots: the legionary camp, the cemetery and the bath. The tour guide told us that they are currently working on uncovering the amphitheater.
After seeing ancient graves, frescoes and pools we moved to our second part of the trip: lunch and coffee at Silver Lake tourist resort. We were ready to jump forward in time. We drove through a beautiful and entirely flat countryside. Some of the new houses built around that area are humongous and we kept making jokes about the kitchy lion sculptures placed at the front gate of every other house.
We quickly got to the Danube River and the Silver Lake area. This whole complex is new and posh, with one restaurant after the other and with plenty of rooms to stay, looking at the river. We headed to Dincic Kafana and ordered a delicious perch fish, potatoes and salad. Serbian food is never the wrong option, no matter which dish you choose.
We ended the happy journey after another hour driving back and called it a night early.