Ostia Antica

Friday morning we awoke and were able to have a leisurely breakfast since Arthur wasn't in a toot to get to St. Peter's before the doors opened.  We were on our way to Ostia Antica, the ancient ruins of Rome's harbor on the sea about 30 minutes outside of Rome.  On our way we decided to jump off the subway and see another church, Santa Maria del Popolo.  The main draw to see this church was that it is home to two Caravaggio paintings-- and Alex the tour guide is a Caravaggio groupie.  The two paintings are the Conversion of Saint Paul and the Crucifixion of Saint Peter.  Another delight was seeing Bernini's Daniel and the Lion.  The previous day at the Borghese Gallery we had seen works by Caravaggio and Bernini but it is also fun to see the works where they were originally intended for use-- the church-- instead of a gallery.

 The church is also at one end of the Via del Corso which is Rome's main shopping drag so we decided to do some shopping.  There was a day market set up in the piazza and the scarves on display caught Alex's eye so we did our Christmas shopping for the women in our families and were able to stuff 7 scarves in our day pack.  It was a little ironic that we were next to a few Chinese tourist who seemed very excited to buy Italian scarves with tags that said Made in China.

Next we made our way through Rome's public transportation network to get on the commuter train heading out to Ostia.  It was a wonderful place to people watch.  The gal next to us was Russian, someone of Middle Eastern decent was across the aisle.  One car down someone had pulled out their violin and was playing.  And Italians in general are fun to watch since they are so emotive.  We jumped off our train and then quickly walked to the site, especially when we saw a few large tour buses and another field trip approach.

Ostia Antica is thought to have been founded in around 700 BC and the earliest remains date to the 4th century BC.  While it is not grand and stately ruins like the Colosseum or the Forum it is a well preserved area that demonstrates daily life in ancient Rome.  What amazed us most was the size of the excavation.  Currently it covers about 50 acres but they are predicting that only 2/3 of the ruins have been unearthed at this time-- you never really now what is underneath your feet.   The other glorious part, at least for Alex, was that with the ruins being outside of Rome, significantly fewer tourists make the journey to see it.  After two days of navigating the mobs in Rome it was nice to meander and explore virtually by ourselves.

Ostia Antica was the port city where the Tiber met the sea.  Over the years the river changed course, the harbor fill with silt, and the area became a swamp with the mud preserving the ancient city.  We walked through the ancient city gates and past the necropolis or city of the dead which would have been the cemetery.

We then wandered down the main drag to the baths, complete with intact mosaic floor.

At the center of the city there was the theater as well as the market stalls for the items shipped into the port.  The mosaics here denoted what was sold in each stall.

Next we stopped by the mill, complete with mill stones.

There were also apartment buildings that were two or three stories tall and what would have been a fast food joint with pictures on the wall to serve as the menu.

And of course the Romans had great infrastructure including this twenty seat latrine with running water.

Alex especially enjoyed just wandering the quiet street and seeing birds and trees.  We could wander blocks upon blocks of these archaeological discoveries-- just the sheer size of the area was impressive.

When we headed back to Rome we didn't have any set plans for the afternoon other than a leisurely lunch and hopefully attending Mass at St. Peter's at 5pm.  We found a restaurant for lunch and since it was after the lunch crowd we were able to sit a one of the tables on the sidewalk.  The idea of eating your dinner as people hurry by on the sidewalk next to you and cars whiz pass on the other doesn't seem relaxing but when you are absorbed in eating pizza bianca and some delicious pasta it doesn't matter.  We also indulged in tiramisu for dessert since that was on our list of must try foods while in Italy.

The Vatican was such a great experience that we decided to head back and go to Mass.  Mass was at 5pm and when we arrived to the line it was probably around 3:30.  Luckily we were standing next to a couple from the New England and enjoyed trading travel stories with them as we waited to make it through the line for security.  

We finally were in St. Peter's about 30 min before Mass and tried to work our way to the front altar where it was to be held.  There were barricades up and then a procession started through the nave trapping us in a Catholic mosh pit.  People were pushing and shoving or using their selfie sticks to try to get shots of the procession.  The guards were then very selective on who could go through the barricades for the Mass-- it had to be for worship.  In talking to the guard I found out that the Mass was expected to take 2 hours- or that is just what they were saying to keep the riffraff out.  We had reservations at the museum at 7pm so we couldn't stay that long so we pushed our way through the masses for Mass and left.  

Arthur suggested we go see the a few of the churches down the street.  At this point the crowds, the lines, the people trying to sell things, and maybe even the excessive churches had gotten to Alex and she had a melt down and refused to go to any more churches.  Arthur, being the wise husband he is, decided that the best remedy for a wife that is about to lose it is to get her gelato and luckily there was a great gelato shop just around the corner of the Vatican.  Alex cooled down eating her Nutella gelato on a quiet sidwalk and was then ready to move on to the last stop on our Italy adventure-- The Vatican Museums.