Last tour day—Ostia Antica

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Before I discuss our last tour, I’d like to talk about things that were going on in Rome the week we were there.  Our first day, Monday, a transit strike was called (trains/buses)  which did not affect us at all.  On Thursday the cab drivers went on strike (for one day)  Didn’t really notice any difference, other than our tour manager commenting on the fact that the traffic seemed lighter.  We were a little concerned because we needed a taxi to pick us up Friday morning at the hotel to be at Piazza del Popolo at 7:14 am for our Pompeii tour.  There was no problem- the strike was truly a one day thing.

On Saturday Rome hosted a 60^th year celebration of the beginning of the Common Market, later known as the European Union.  Forty heads of state were converging in Rome for the celebration.  The city was filled with police and Carabinieri everywhere you looked.  There were buses of police all around the city—getting into place on Friday to be ready for Saturday.  We saw motorcades of black limos and large black SUV type vehicles.  They drove through red lights and didn’t slow down.  Six different protests were planned around the city and this would have been  a perfect time for  a terrorist attack. As far as we heard, everything went off without a hitch.  No violence, no problems, everything happened as it was planned.   We were outside the city in the morning and returned just after noon.  Many, many roads were closed and many attractions were also closed—the Colosseum, the Forum and parts of the Vatican were not open at all

.  Our bus driver both coming and going had to find open streets to get to our hotel and to get us out of the city for our last activity—Ostia Antica, an ancient port of Rome.

This tour was much like Pompeii—a “lost” city that has been unearthed.  Differences are--  Ostia was covered by sand after tit was no longer the primary port for Rome.  There was no sudden death, no explosion, just with lack of employment ---people left and the sand took over.

We saw theatre, with the original masks

Original theatre masks

This is evidence that these apartments were multi story buildings

exercise field,

 homes, shops and the “famous” bathhouse and toilets of Ostia.

Before we actually entered the city, we walked through the necropolis (cemetery)  There were family “crypts” with niches for the bodies of important relatives  and places for urns containing ashes.

Our guide lined 7 of us up on the road and explained that the roads were that width so a “cohort” of Roman soldiers could travel it comfortably.  7 in a row X 7 rows + the leader= 50 soldiers

This city was founded as the major port of Rome over 2400 years ago.  We saw places where the entire town was raised several feet to provide a place for deep foundations for new apartments being built by the  Emperor.    Some marble from Ostia was recycled in the building of St. Peter’s.

Water  was brought to the town via aquaducts and was stored in tanks for use in the fountains and bath houses and also was piped into some private homes.

Mosaics in the street in front of a shop described that type of shop it was.    There were shops selling goods, there were bakers, laundry, a place to hire ship workers and builders.     

One of the houses showed a dining room where the eaters reclined and the slaves brought in food in the center of the room.

 We saw a bathhouse that offered cold pools, tepid, hot pools and saunas.  These hollow bricks brought hot air to the sauna.

 Near the bath house were the toilets—Didn’t see anything like this in Pompeii

We entered a restaurant where the guide showed us the “menu”--- a mosaic on the wall 

 

and the fridge (which was a place for the amphora filled with liquid to be kept cool in a hole in the ground)

The ancient fridge

Olivia

As all attractions we’ve visited, we browsed the gift shop, where N found a cap and made friends with Olivia, the shop cat.

We got on the bus and napped a little until we got back to Rome.  Streets were still closed and seemed deserted and again the bus driver had to twist and turn through the few streets that were open to find a way to get us back to our hotel