Ostia Antica

If you are interested in old Roman ruins (as opposed to an old British ruin), then you really mustn’t miss the excavations of the old Roman city of Ostia Antica.  Less than an hour’s ride either by metro or car from Rome, the site is easy to reach, and yet very few people have ever heard of it.

If you’ve been to Rome before you may even have driven along its boundary on your way to Leonardo Da Vinci (Fiumicino) airport, perhaps noticing fields of Roman ruins and wondered what they were. It’s really a terrible pity more people aren’t aware of Ostia Antica as it is far better preserved than the Roman sites in central Rome and there’s far more to see.  Plus being off the beaten track, and so vast that although tourists do go there you don’t see hoards of people.  Vito and I love it there, and we’ve been on several occasions taking visitors too.   The site is enormous, it’s impossible to describe even using pictures how huge it is.  Over 2,000 years ago it was a bustling port that brought in everything for Rome from food such as wine, and oil, to fierce wild beasts for gladiators to fight at the Colosseum.  Commercial offices stand amongst the theatre, the public service buildings, temples, bars, shops and apartment blocks, some of them still standing more than one floor high.  You can still find the fishmonger and even public baths and toilets!  Below is a very quick (and incomplete) tour (plus a couple of links) to see if we can tempt you there next time you visit Rome :)  

Enter through the gates to the archeological site of Ostia Antica and you take a long step back in time.  For the first part until you reach the portal, you will pass by the crypts and (empty) coffins of people long since gone. 

Obviously families were buried together, and if you are interested in this kind of thing, you can spend at least a day there without ever hitting the entrance to the city proper if old tombs are your thing.  

Once through the portal to the right of main road excavated buildings can be seen.   However if you carry on along the road, you will pass by the portal or old gate, and from thereon you will be in the city proper. See how long the road is?  You haven’t seen anything yet!!!    Although there has been a lot excavated, even now much of the old city lies hidden under centuries of greenery which offer cool shade to hot and bothered tourists.

Walking past old shops, the visitor will also pass side streets, one that leads to the old building of the Vigili – the fire brigade

and another past the side of the theatre

(which is often used today as a picturesque setting for many modern productions) and on down “Corporation Street” to one of my favourite places in Ostia Antica, “Corporation Square”.   This square appears to have been a commercial centre for insurance and shipping offices.  In front of each shop was a mosaic depicting what was sold or shipped by that particular company.  See here

Can you see the word Carthage written above the boat?

these people used to trade with Carthage as you can see on the mosaic.  Some of the mosaics are in the process of being renovated.

 Did they carry oil, wine, dates? An archaeologist could probably tell you, unfortunately I’m not an archeologist so can’t!  Here is a view across Corporation Square looking back towards the theatre.

Corporation Square looking back towards the theatre

 I can’t even begin to describe the size of this old city, it’s truly enormous. Back onto the main road, and past the theatre (which has been substantially restored)

Front of the theatre 

 and onward down the road (told you it was long!) you’ll come to other sites, such as the Christian Basilica

Christian basilica

and eventually the Capitolium (or temple to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva) which is in the centre of Ostia Antica.

The Capitolium

Let’s take a look north and south now to get some idea of the size of this place. 

Looking north

Looking south

See what I mean? Those dots at the end of the roads are people, not flies on the camera lens!  From here on you can find the fishmonger

Fishmonger with marble table

 (how well was that table made to last all these years?) an example of a warehouse

Warehouse with storage urns

, a mill where you can imagine the donkeys pulling the presses round and round,

Mill

and the old abattoir. 

Abattoir

  

Even looks like a modern day bar doesn't it?

What did they do for fun?  Well same as us, sometimes.  Bars appear to have been as popular then as they are now, and look almost the same as you can see from these pictures of a restored establishment. There were shelves for bottles and glasses

and it even had a patio outside for customers to stand when the weather was fine.  Other pastimes have not continued to today, well not to my knowledge anyway.  Communal loo (or should that be poo) anyone?  

Communal toilets

The holes actually extend around three walls and seat a good few people!  At the exit is this.

Toilet paper ancient Roman style

In case you are wondering what the bowl like structure on the floor is, it’s where a slave stood with a sponge and rosewater to er… clean the person before they left (wonder what the slave used to talk about to his/her spouse every evening!)  At the end of the road, walk across wide green still largely unexcavated spaces

Wide green spaces

to arrive at the final set of ruins, which were actually outside the old walls the city, that of the old synagogue, reputed to be the oldest excavated in Europe.

The synagogue

It used to be by the water’s edge, but now the Tiber has silted up so much land that Ostia Antica lies 4 Km behind the sea.  To walk without stopping once from the entrance to the Ostia Antica archaeological site to this point took Vito and me one and a quarter hours when we tried it once.  
So there you go, a whizz tour around the Roman ruins at Ostia Antica.   I find it amazing that so much of it is still intact a good 2,000 years after it was planned.  Just look at how precise that planning and building was too.

Precision planning

This is looking up a row of excavated houses on the left of the main street as you walk into town.  See how uniform they all are?  How perfect the measurements must have been.  Wonder if the places we live in right now will be standing in the same place in 2,000 years time.  Wonder if a fishmonger’s table and old storage jars will still be around to tell their tales.   If you would like to know more about Ostia Antica, read here, and here.   I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick look round with me, and will go see for yourself if you ever pass by this way. All you need is an excellent pair of walking shoes, plenty of sun cream if you go in the summer, some bottled water as the very modern serving bar is half way in, a sun hat, and of course a camera.  I do hope I've managed to tempt you.  It really is a fabulous place and well worth the trip :)