Walking in Ostia.. Day 8

Day 8:

Today we went one of the major port cities of ancient Rome, Ostia Antica. Ostia played a huge role in ancient Rome by providing a way for grains, wine, and other goods to be shipped up the Tiber to Rome. Rome, being the large city that it was, required a lot of goods and since it was so far up the river this created a problem for getting imported goods to the Roman people. We learned that around 17 ships per day were needed to meet the demand of Rome. The number 17 doesn't sound like much but when you consider these larger ships were being unloaded by hand, brought into Ostia, and then being reloaded onto smaller ships to send up to Rome, the number is quite astounding.

Since Ostia Antica was a port city it would have been considered a working class community. The structure of the city that is left today is not the grand ruins and elaborate buildings that you would see in Rome, but instead is a city set up for the middle class. It has several buildings that are evidence of this; apartment buildings that would have housed several families, public baths, laundromats, and small store/market fronts.

Ostia is a really unique ancient city because of how well it is preserved. It was first used by the Roman's as a military station where they could have men patrolling the mouth of the Tiber and defending Rome from anyone trying to go upstream to attack. Once it was made into a port city it became a boom town and grew quite a bit. However, with the decline of the Roman empire, Ostia also began to decline. The town began to get swampy and inhabitable and was soon forgotten. When the city was drained and excavated we were left with a great portrayal of what a working class ancient Roman city would have looked like.

While walking around Ostia today it was really cool to see the framework of the city in the ruins that are left. So often with ancient ruins it seems that you have to try and recreate almost the entire building or monument, but with the ruins of Ostia you are left with a great understanding of what most of the city would have looked like. My favorite part of the city was the theater and temple area. It was very cool to see the theater, although reconstructed, almost fully intact. I felt that walking through the city really helped me visualize how these people may have lived when this was a major port of Rome.

After Ostia, a group of us decided to go to the beach that was only a few train stops away. Just as a little foreshadowing, today was not our best public transportation day. So to start our journey to the beach, we waited for the train for a solid 15 minutes. Once on the train it was smooth sailing to our stop at Lido Central. None of us had a real good plan for what we were doing so we all just started walking to where we thought the beach was. This ended up working out okay because we were headed in the right direction and ended up at the beach within 10 minutes. We all laid out our towels and tried our best to get a tan. It was quite relaxing except for the men walking around every five minutes trying to get you to buy beads, coconuts, blankets, or a drink. We stayed at the beach for about an hour or so and then decided to pack it up and head out. We made it back to the train station and just as we scanned our tickets the train took off and we had to wait another 15 minutes. Finally our train arrived and we got on a train that looked straight out of a horror film. It had graffiti on just about every inch and it looked pretty old. We left the train station, but a few stops down one of the conductors came into our train and started trying to shut all of the doors. I'm not sure if they were not closing all the way or what the deal was but it didn't make us feel all that secure. After about a 30 minute train ride we got to the terminal where we were going to jump on the metro. Since we all wanted to get home we thought that taking the metro over taking the bus would be faster. So we went down to the metro stop and jumped on the train. We stood on the train for about five minutes while the doors were open and people just kept piling in. Everyone was touching and it was very uncomfortable. After about 15 minutes of standing there the doors finally shut and we started to move. We only had to go three stops but it took up 30 minutes just to get to where we needed to transfer trains. We were then informed that when it rains, the metro trains all slow way down because they have to wait for the train in front of them before they can go. Being the smart college students we are we decided to just take the bus the rest of the way home! Turns out the place that we got off the train did not have any bus stops that would take us back to our apartment. So, back into the metro we went. Luckily this one was a little faster and we finally made it back to our apartment. I did not keep official time but I think it took us over an hour to get back, when it would normally take us anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes.

We were all relieved to be back at the apartments after a long day! Today felt like one of the longest days yet. I'm guessing it had something to do with the public transportation and the sunburn that is now on my shoulders. It was a very fun day though and I am looking forward to tomorrow when we go to Naples and Pompeii!

Ciao!