Tally ho...: Leaving Rome, Ostia Antica, Drive to Tuscany

This morning we left Rome (found a very nice cab driver who didn't speak a lick of English, my very limited Italian somehow got us through however) and went to pick up our rental car (on the outskirts of town). We decided to visit Ostia Antica, a once-important shipping port, for a few hours before we committed to the several-hour drive to Tuscany.

Ostia Antica blew us all away. The site is a major archaeological excavation nestled in the heart of the town of Ostia. It's not crowded at all, and you are able to walk in, through and around 2,000 year old buildings. The experience was truly captivating, even in the heat of the day we all had huge grins and open mouthed amazement as we explored this ancient site.

I'm honestly at a bit of a loss at what to post. Ostia Antica is huge and I'm again struggling with the inability of photographs to adequately convey the experience.

Please scroll through or open the "slideshow" view below. Any photos are available in hi-res if you'd like a copy, just send me a note.

After the car-park, you enter Ostia Antica through the Necropolis (literally "City of the Dead" in Greek, AKA the town cemetery).

Memorial relief outside the Necropolis

The little niches were for burial urns

More urn niches

Erin identified this as a statue of Minerva

The source of the identification - Medusa's head on Minerva's shield. When Erin (10) identified this statue Shannon and I were pretty darned proud, and other tourists were suitably impressed.

Speaking of other tourists, there really weren't many. Ostia Antica was not crowded and managed to feel rather intimate.

A view along the Decumanus, a row of covered alcoves lining the city street. Street vendors would set up shop in front of the alcoves but retreat into them in inclement weather.

The floor of the Terme di Nettuno - the Baths of Neptune. Like most major Roman cities, Ostia had a large public bath, including calidario (hot rooms), frigidario (cold rooms) and various saunas. The floor of the main hallway which is accessed from the entrance vestibule, hosts the mosaic that gave its name to the complex: Neptune on a chariot drawn by sea horses and surrounded by Tritons , Nereids and animals and sea monsters.

Erin for scale. This mosaic is massive and mostly intact. Many of the mosaics at Ostia have been exposed to vandals and the elements for years. The archaeologists are in a race against time to preserve what they can.

Right here, in this spot, Erin told me she wants to be an archaeologist. She was absolutely giddy with excitement. Okay, so was I.

GIDDY

This is me being giddy. Credit to Shannon for taking this one. I think the only view she had of me at Ostia Antica looked something like this (camera to eye)

View from the back of the complex through a furnace opening into a calidarium. There would have been a raised floor to allow heating underneath.

Sauna, with original sauna seating intact.

Behind the baths could be found the Caserma dei Vigili - the Station of the Vigilant, or guard house. These citizen-soldiers acted as firemen, police and constabulary. Having the fire station behind the calidarium at the baths was probably a good idea. Their latrine (above) featured side-by-side pooping!

I love the contrast in this one, with a hint of sunlight to the left and a dark stair to the right.

Steps leading up to the town amphitheater.

The amphitheater, still used today for dramatic productions (the Odyssey is coming up this week!)

View of the Temple of Ceres from the amphitheater

Comedy and tragedy, facing the theater.

Columns lining the old front part of the theater

Temple of Ceres

The amphitheater as viewed from the temple of Ceres.

A mostly intact section of the amphitheater (from the back)

The capital building. The walls must have been 3 feet thick.

Street adjacent to the theater, featuring food shops to lure theater goers. You could almost hear the slap of sandals, the laughing and jostling crowd, and smell the fresh-baked bread. Ostia Antica put me closer to history than I've ever felt.