Ostia Antica - The original port city of Rome

We tried something unique today.  A day trip that most don't know exists.  A trip to the original sea port of Rome.  For now, the comments will be brief, because it was a long day of heat, exercise, and well... exercise.

Ostia Antica is a few short train rides from Rome and was once the trading grounds of Europe for the countries in the area.

Everyone heads to Pompeii, but with a little research, a few discover Ostia Antica.  A few (about 8 of us) got off the 2nd train at Ostia and headed into town.  I said to Kelly that everyone is going to turn left at the next intersection.  I was right.  Only her and I went to the right...

Through this small arch was a different world.  The castle\fortress that once guarded the Tiber river and was home to Pope II.

The isolated area has a few homes within it's walls and a church.

The fountain still works and I believe it is still the water heater or furnace for the buildings.

After visiting the area and buying a huge bottle of water for 1,50 Euro (We're not in Kansas anymore, or I should say "Rome"), we headed to the ruins of Ostia.

Ostia is a BC city, yes BC, that thrived until Malaria caused it's desertion.  The ocean tide soon moved in and buried the town in silt leaving it undiscovered until the late 1900s.  This resulted in finds that are VERY well preserved.  The foundations and flooring still exist and only the wood, upper halves of the homes and the roofs have decayed with time.

The decorated walls of the homes.

The cemetery rooms that held the urns.

I have to be honest.  I don't know what I found here.  I saw three sets of steps about 20 yards away from the main cemetery area on the edge of the property\ruins.

I decided to climb the steps and proceed deep into the dense woods\foliage.  I said to Kelly, "I will be right back."

I found this small hole in the ground that opened up into a fairly vast room of complete darkness.  I stuck the camera in there and snapped several photos.  It appears to be a burial chamber, rather than a place for urns.  It doesn't look like structure for the flooring.  This wasn't excavated, this was more or less a cave that I ran across.  After a few mosquito bites, I moved on.

The flooring of the rooms were well preserved and the site as a whole didn't look like it was completely uncovered.  Several of the mosaics appeared to be still covered in dirt (partially or in whole).  Maybe the project ran out of funding.

This was a shower room in the Roman bath.  Notice the drain in the middle!  Other rooms had toilets and you could see the holes in the floor for the walls and doors to swing.

This was the steam room and the circle in the upper right corner was a large bathtub!

A road that is at least 2100 years old.  You can see the ruts from the chariot wheels.

This was the only complete door that we found.  I don't know if it was restored at some point or the silt preserved it.

Original, tiny brick flooring as opposed to mosaics.

The shop area.  This was the main corridor for store fronts.  Right behind us was a bar.  The mosaics on the floor showed the type of store that it was.  The mosaic on the floor was a large, two handled cup.

A large auditorium that is still used today.

This was the market area where each country at the time brought their goods.  This is only part of one of three sides.  Each mosaic on the floor showed the type of goods that they sold and it often named the country.

A team was there restoring and\or preserving the mosaics.  I think that they were cleaning the tiles and removing loose soil and filling it with concrete to prevent the movement of the soil under the mosaics.

Let me say that this was a long, hot walk.  Kelly struggled to find this smile, but it is Fanta after all.

After a few hours, we decided to call it quits and we only saw less than a third of the city.  On the way back, we took a few fun photos with the relics. The neat thing about this area is that there are very few closed off areas that can't be walked on and explored including the mosaics.

I have always liked this sign in Italy, so I took a picture on the walk back to the train station.

Tired, hungry, and completely overheated, I took this photo of the chaos as we walked by the Trevi fountain, which is the end of the line for the ancient Roman aquaducts.

 
Entertainers take turns performing as we eat our dinner (and then ask for tips afterwards).

 I really had to force myself to bring up the energy for this smile.  It was a long, hot day.

 The pork and potatoes were phenomenal, though!

 The dessert and the conversation with the couple next to us was a good way to end the evening.

Go to 6/19/13