Rome, Italy - Travel Scrapbook

Thursday, November 2, 2006

Day 5: Roman Ruins of Ostia Antica

Today we'll gain a new perspective on this ancient city. We'll tour the ancient Mediterranean seaport of Ostia Antica, enjoying lunch together before returning to the city along the historic Appian Way. Your dinner and evening are on your own. Walking: strenuous.

Our appointed meeting time this morning is 7:50am.  A coach motor bus is waiting for us at the Piazza Della Repubblica.  Francesa joins us again today.  Also, Stephanie and Ben, join us for the morning.  They are guides too.  We pass lots of sights on the trip to Ostia Antica and Francesa continues our Italian history and art lessons. 

Italy has only been a unified country since 1870.  We pass the round Hercules Temple built in the second century BC, "Mouth of Truth” (La Bocca della Verità), a stone face in Rome that legend says will bite your hand off if you tell a lie (see it in the Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck movie Roman Holiday), the Circus Maximus, the American Embassy in Rome, a pyramid built in 330 days and St. Paul’s Outside the Walls Church.  The church was almost completely destroyed in 1823.  There are mosaics of all the Popes in the church with only a few empty spaces left…..let’s hope the saying that when all the spaces are filled in, the world will end is not true.  We also pass by the E.U.R. city built by fascist Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini.

Sights during the bus ride to Ostia Antica.

Francesa leads us on another imagine-if-you-will life in the ancient seaside town of Ostia Antica.

While Pompeii was destroyed in a single instant, the port of Ostia had a gradual decline.  A number of reasons are given for the decline: Rome’s port took greater importance, later the fall of the Roman empire, then the harbor silted up, the Tiber River changed course and finally mud covered Ostia Antica. 

That’s a lot of bad breaks for the port-city of sixty thousand citizens.

We start our tour...

The group compares the “facilities” in the home of a wealthy family versus the public “facilities” (Francesa tells us they had no word for privacy). 

Slaves often warmed the marble seat for their master’s warm and comfortable use. 

Rick explains in his book —“The cutout below the seat was to accommodate the washable sponge on a stick, which was used rather than toilet paper.

Rushing water below each seat (brought in by the aqueduct) did the flushing.” 

Toilet paper wasn’t invented yet, remember.

On the way back to Rome, we stop at the Catacombs of San Callisto.  It was the official cemetery of Christians of Rome. 

Christians buried their dead in the tufa stone several layers deep in miles of tunnels. 

Our Catacombs guide is from USA, Pennsylvania to be exact.  He leads us through the Catacombs.  No pictures allowed in the Catacombs.

As were nearing our hotel, the bus driver was kind enough to let Stacy, Ladonna, Danny and me off at the Termini Station since we were passing by.

We purchase train tickets to Pompeii for Saturday @6:45am.  It’s a non-stop, 2 hour and 15 minute ride to the ancient city of Pompeii.