Day 48: Ruined

Date: Thursday 15^th May
Staying: Tiber Camping - Rome
Distance Travelled: 0 Miles
Song of the day: Let Forever Be - Chemical Brothers

So, Laurinda was not her normal vivacious self again today. Hmmm, I think she is just giving excuses so she can sit in Jarno and read books all day. It is an addiction, and she was getting help for it in London, but away from that support network, I think she is slipping back into bad habits. There is only so much I can do, so I have to turn a blind eye ;-) (look at me, the tortured hubby). I think the fact she has almost finished War and Peace would justify my observation.

This left me with the whole day to fill in, in Rome, all by myself. Hell Yeah!!! I don’t think it is too much of a stretch for me to say that Rome is my favourite city on the planet. I love the place and could spend hours sitting on the Palantine Hill just looking around. Today, however, I determined to visit a place outside Rome that I had been told was well worth the time.

Ostia Antica is about 18km Southeast of Rome, on the coast. Back in the day it protected the entrance to the port of Rome. It was last populated in the 4^th Century AD, and has since fallen into ruin. But what ruins. I LOVE RUINS. Like, with a passion. Ostia Antica has been described as better preserved than Pompeii (I am going there shortly, so will compare), so I was looking forward to getting there.

I wasn’t disappointed. The site covers 34 hectares, and has some of the most completely ruins I have ever seen. At one point I climbed up to the 3^rd floor of a 2000+ year old house to have a look over the ruined city stretching off into the distance. If you are interested in ruins, this is a place to go. Very few tourists and not hard to get photos with no-one in them, and the school groups stick to the main paths, so you can get lost in amongst the ruins to your hearts content (that would be 5 hours for me, oops), and not worry about the screaming kids.

So after spending pretty much my entire day out of Rome, I headed back in, got off the Metro at Circus Maximus and strolled up to Plaza Spagna, via the Palantine Hill, Mouth of Truth, Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain and the Spainsh steps. All-in-all, a very enjoyable day. And when I got back, Laurinda was feeling much better (had a book fix more like), so all’s well that ends well.