Ostia Antica

Having seen just about everything we have wanted to see in Rome, Bill and I decided today to have a bit of an adventure. We took a local train from one of the metro stations to an area called Ostia Antica, about a 20-minute train ride from the metro station. Ostia Antica was ancient Rome’s port city. The ruins that remain rival Pompeii as far as being able to actually offer the opportunity to see how the ancient Romans lived. The city was Rome’s port city until the Tiber River changed its course and left the city dry, and eventually vacant.

The area of ruins is huge, and it took a couple of hours for us to see what we saw, which wasn’t nearly the entire ancient city. Still, it was fascinating and we enjoyed it very much. Though we were really tired and dirty, we decided to ride the train a bit further where we could have the opportunity to see the Mediterranean. We got off the train and walked down to where we had a chance to look, but not touch. The area we chose to stop consisted entirely of private beaches, so we couldn’t even dangle our toes. Still, it was pretty. There didn’t seem to be a lot of people enjoying the sea because it is still so dang hot. It is way too hot to sit out in the sun, even if you can jump in the water on occasion.

We had dinner at our little restaurant for the last time, since we will spend Saturday night in the city. For the first time, Bill decided to try a Caffe Coretto. That is an expresso with grappa. Well. Let me just say that grappa is really nasty stuff. Wow. I’m talking seriously nasty. He describes it as expresso with kerosene. Caffe Lattes from here on out.