One of the best things to do when visiting Rome is to have a day out of Rome and one of the best places to go is Ostia Antica, the remains of one of the first Roman colonies dating from the 4th century BC which grew to over 50,000 inhabitants by the 3rd century AD.
Ostia Antica is easy to reach with a 1.50 Euro ticket each way:
Take the Metro B Line in the direction of Laurentina (south) and exit the train at the Piramides station, 4 stops from Termini Station. Follow the signs to the Roma- Lido Railway and the Roma Porto S Paolo station platform and get on the train heading to Lido di Ostia. It’s less than a five minute walk from one platform to the next and the signs are easy to read. The Lido train takes about 30 minutes to the Ostia Antica station. Trains run frequently, and we didn’t wait more than 10 minutes for a train in either direction.
Exit the station, walk over the highway bridge and follow the signs to Scavi di Ostia Antica. That’s about a ten minute walk.
Entry: Entry tickets are 8.00 Euros. Get a map for 2.00 Euros and start wandering.
The park usually opens around 8:30 am. We got to the park around 9:00 am, and had the place practically to ourselves for the first hour. The day was misty and the lost-in-time atmosphere enveloped us as we headed into the extensive ancient Roman city.
The first thing you come to are the crypts, for the cemetery was located outside the city walls. You can walk around, through and into many of the partially restored structures.
Family burial plot Ostia Antica
Keep following the main road and you come to the remnants of the city gate and the rest of the city.
From there you can spend time where your interests lie. You can inspect the baths and communal toilets, you can linger at the forum looking at the floor mosaics where shops would have sold goods, sit up high in the theater and imagine a Greek play being performed on the proscenium below.
Continue to the Insula, or residential villas and apartments that were up to four stories high. There is also a museum where some of the sculptures, sarcophagi and frescoes are on display.
Decorated House Tour Ostia Antica
We were lucky to have planned our trip for a Sunday, and twice a month there are free 2-hour tours of the “Decorated Houses” led by an archaeologist. We signed up on the Ostia Antica website, and met at the museum at 10:30. There were about 15 in our group and we set off to see several of the residences that are generally not on public view.
These houses belonged mostly to the ruling class (about 100 AD) and have interesting wall frescoes, interior courtyards, floor mosaics, plumbing, and even an altar. We saw four houses, including the House of Diana, the House of the Muses, and the House of the Painted Vaults.
House of the Muses
Floor Mosaic Design
NOTE: If you want to do this tour, be aware that it is conducted in Italian, and the tour guide we had was not bilingual.
We felt very lucky to have been able to see what was behind these locked gates, even if we couldn’t quite catch the details.
We left the park around 1:00 and walked ten minutes into the town of Ostia Antica for lunch. (Great little place: Piazza Ravenna).
The trains back to the city were just as easily negotiated, and we were back at Termini Station in 45 minutes.
If you are interested in how ancient Romans lived, you don’t have to go to Pompeii, you can do the easy day trip to Ostia Antica.
Outside the walls
