Eporedia – Ivrea

Is it worth the trip?

Not on its own. Ivrea’s Roman remains are low foundations seen through a fence and a few blocks in a river, and a visitor who comes only for them will be done within an hour or two. As a stop for someone already in the area or on the way to the Aosta Valley it is pleasant: the remains are free to look at, the amphitheatre and the bridges are within walking distance of the centre, and the museum puts the finds next to them. Ivrea’s own fame lies elsewhere, in the Olivetti industrial town (a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2018) and in the carnival’s Battle of the Oranges (en.wikipedia).

Getting there

Ivrea is on the Chivasso–Aosta railway, with trains to Turin and Aosta, and on the A5 Turin–Aosta motorway (it.wikipedia). The town’s buses are run by GTT (it.wikipedia), and a bus stop and a tourist information office are mapped within 200 m of the centre (OpenStreetMap). Drivers can use the paid car park in Piazza Nuovo Quartiere Vittorio Emanuele, about 100 m from the centre (OpenStreetMap).

The amphitheatre lies about 900 m from the centre; the entrance used for guided visits is on Via dei Cappuccini (Ministero della Cultura). Its interior is listed as closed every day (Ministero della Cultura); it can be entered on special days or by arrangement with the comune or the Soprintendenza (it.wikipedia). For the European Heritage Days on 13 June 2026 the Soprintendenza’s archaeologists and the museum offered a guided visit, which presented restoration work at the amphitheatre that was then about to start (Ministero della Cultura).

The Museo Garda in Piazza Ottinetti opens Tuesday to Sunday, 09.00 to 13.00 and 15.00 to 18.00, closed on Mondays and public holidays, with last entry half an hour before closing. A ticket is €8, or €6 for over-65s, university students up to 25 and groups of twenty or more; under-18s enter free, as do holders of the Abbonamento Musei or the Torino+Piemonte Card (museogardaivrea.it, read 19 October 2026).

History

Before Rome, the main settlement of the Celtic Salassi in the area stood on the Brich Appareglio near Pavone Canavese, about 3 km south of the centre (it.wikipedia). Eporedia was founded in 100 BC, during Marius’s sixth consulship, as a colony of Roman citizens on the left bank of the Dora Baltea, at the mouth of the Aosta Valley and on the route to the Alpine passes; its task was to hold the Salassi, whom Rome finally subdued in 25 BC (en/it.wikipedia, citing Velleius Paterculus). The name is Celtic: Pliny the Elder explained it as the Gauls’ word for good horse-tamers (it.wikipedia). The town was assigned to Regio XI (Pleiades).

The street from the amphitheatre into the old town keeps the line of the road that linked Rome with the lands beyond the Alps; Eporedia was a necessary stage on it and grew into a trading centre, and in the imperial period new quarters spread east of the walls, between the Porta Praetoria and the amphitheatre (Ministero della Cultura). The Pons Major was probably built in the 1st century AD, about 150 m long on eleven piers, and seems to have been brought down by a flood not long after it was finished; a Roman quay more than 100 m long ran along the left bank beside it (it.wikipedia). Its remains first came to light in the flood of 1977 and were documented during the bank repairs after the flood of 1993 (it.wikipedia).

The amphitheatre has been known since the early 20th century and was excavated systematically between 1955 and 1964, the adjoining villa in the early 1980s (it.wikipedia). The excavators found fragments of frescoes and a long stretch of the bronze facing of the backs of the podium seats (Ministero della Cultura). Its capacity is estimated at between 10,000 and 15,000 spectators (it.wikipedia; Ministero della Cultura).

After the Gothic War, Ivrea may have been part of the Byzantine defences of north-western Italy - some scholars identify it with the kástron Eourías named by George of Cyprus - and by 772 it was the seat of a Lombard duchy (en/it.wikipedia).