March 23, 2018 - Ostia Antica

We're a little behind.  A week ago (March 23rd) we hopped on a commuter train in the morning and traveled to the ancient ruins of the Roman city of Ostia Antica.  Wikipedia has the following description of the site:

Ostia Antica is a large archeological site, close to the modern suburb of Ostia, that is the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, 15 miles (25 kilometers) southwest of Rome. "Ostia" (plur. of "ostium") is a derivation of "os", the Latin word for "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but due to silting the site now lies 3 kilometres (2 miles) from the sea.[2] The site is noted for the excellent preservation of its ancient buildings, magnificent frescoes and impressive mosaics.

They believe the city was originally settled between the 7th and 4th centuries B.C.  It was abandoned in the 9th century A.D. because of changes in the Tiber River's path and disease.

We really enjoyed Ostia Antica (probably more than Pompeii) because it was so peaceful. There were far fewer people there than at Pompeii, there was a lot of green grass and many trees full of birds singing, and it seemed like you could actually walk into more of the structures than at Pompeii.  It could be that we liked it better because it felt like a really nice contrast to the noise and grime of the city that continuously surround us in Rome.

It's kind of difficult to wrap your mind around walking on a stone road that was used for chariots and carts more than 2000 years ago!

It's a maze of ruins that you can explore to your heart's content.  We again had a walking tour provided by Rick Steves.  As always, it was great to have him point out things we would have missed and explain what we were seeing, without boring us or wearing us out.

In a few places, there were weird little wells right in the middle of the road. We learned that they were built later, by barbarians who plundered resources from the abandoned city, and lived in the ruins.

We are in the large theater, which once had a wall separating it from the green square behind us. That square is the Forum of The Guilds. The most important merchants had small rooms all around that green space. Each one had a mosaic on the sidewalk out it's front door, advertising what it is they traded in. When traveling merchants from other countries came, they could just look at the mosaics, without having to read the language, or even be literate, to do their trading. Unfortunately, many of the mosaics were covered when we were there; possibly for winter, or bad weather.

Here's a little video that gives a sense of the scope of the place:

This was a tavern.  It was easy to imagine a bar tender and barflies hanging out here.

In the more residential areas of town, we learned that the average apartment building was about 5 stories high, but some were as much as 10 floors! At they got taller, the upper floors were made of wood, and became less and less livable. The poorest lived in those upper floors, with ladders to get to their cramped, hot, noisy, stinky homes that had no plumbing.

Many beautiful details and sculptures have been moved to a museum on site, but many details still remain, like these ceilings and cornices.

Notice Romulus and Remus on this altar (it's actually a reproduction of the original). This was near the merchant shops. They could sacrifice an animal on it and "read the entrails," to help them make business and trading decisions in the Forum.

Even the drains are works of art!

These are grain mills.  Grain is poured in the top, sticks are inserted in the holes on the sides, and slaves turned it to grind the grain into flour, which comes out the joint between the top and bottom parts of the mill. There is a hole down in the dished part of the top. An amazing thing to make out of lava rock! How did they do it?!

Again, it feels odd to walk on mosaics placed thousands of years ago!

There were many impressively carved sarcophagi, or stone coffins. In one part of the city, the main street was lined with those of the most wealthy or respected community members who had died.

These were toilets.  I guess people in Ostia Antica liked to go to the bathroom together and did not need much privacy. Italian still has no word for "privacy." There was actually running water below the seats, to flush everything away. The plumbing system, including extensive city baths, was incredible, but based on a lot of very miserable slave labor, below ground.

The museum was loaded with impressive statues, etc. found on the site.  Despite her protestations, we continue to go places where Hannah is exposed to naked statues (In this case, I guess he's not completely naked, as he has a lovely scarf and is holding Medusa's head.).

After exploring Ostia Antica, we walked around this castle to the nearby, medieval borgo (old town) of Ostia Antica to have a fantastic meal at a quaint trattoria.

This is deep fried artichoke, which is a traditional Roman dish.Very yummy! You eat the whole thing.

Stay tuned for upcoming posts on everyday life in Rome and a fantastic trip to Assisi!