The Italy Series: Ostia Antica

I've decided to, at the very least, make an attempt to document our Italy trip in a more detailed way.  Instead of doing cool "themes" though, I'm just going the easy route and focusing on chronology and places.  Seems less intimidating that way.

Once upon a time, there was a ghost town.  This ghost town used to be the bustling port city of ancient Rome--Ostia.  Then, time happened and silt happened and the river and the sea moved farther away from the town.  The ghost town was buried and forgotten.

Till...now.  (Well, actually, till the 17th century)

I could give you the gritty logistical details about why this was our first stop in Italy, but I'm just going to go straight onto the main event.

Because of our hyperactive touring style, we were at the gates 10 minutes before it even opened, and we were literally the only people in the city the entire time we explored.

One reason we wanted to see Ostia was because it really was a working city.  We got to walk through old Roman apartment buildings from 100 AD, look into an old tavern and read a mosiac-menu.  And wander through the foundations of this warehouse complex.

We saw original mosaics still on the floors of the many bathhouses or in front of market stalls in the main square...

Probably one of the best parts of Ostia was being able to just climb over everything--nothing was roped off. It felt much more real--not like a museum.

And to be able to get such an up-close look at "working class" Roman architecture was amazing.  I especially loved this concrete and brick arch--a unique and still-used Roman invention.

Taking a lonely morning walk down the main street of an ancient Roman city was an unforgettable experience.  Here we had just reached the old amphitheater.

And we noticed the long-worn wheel ruts in the paving stones...

Took a seat in the stands, and got up close to the temple altars...

And toilets... (How cool is that?!)

Overall, we loved it.  It was so quiet--quiet enough that we could just begin to image what this place must have sounded and smelled and looked like at the height of the Roman Empire, thousands of years ago.