The Ruins of Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica with its 84-hectare archaeological park tells us in the smallest details of daily life in the times of ancient Rome. Ostia is not talked about much, wrong. This is one of the pearls of our archaeological and cultural heritage. Learn the secrets? It is possible by participating in a Ruins of Ostia Antica Guided Tour with a local guide. Here you can walk among grandiose ruins, suggestive atmospheres, with many silences but, how was Ostia Antica in Roman times? Shops, shops, rich Romans on street corners, matrons of course, but also sailors, slaves, merchants and officials of the colossal port warehouses. You will walk in the most illustrious areas of the city, which contain the main attractions and the most extraordinary testimonies. Mansions of the lords with rich geometric mosaics on the floors and colorful frescoes on the walls, the courtyards, suggestive views, original plasters, and then the shops, the commercial premises, around which a dense network of intersecting streets and paths opened up. Born as a “castrum”, that is as a military fortress, over the centuries it has been able to exploit the earth’s resources and create a benefit: salt. Thanks to the stories of the local guide it will be possible to find out more about the salt pans of Ostia, their importance and the road that bears their name: Via Salaria. You will be able to witness a surprising Ostia Antica, which has never been told, a reality that has disappeared for so many centuries. A long journey through time that will fascinate anyone who will be able to travel with the imagination and catapult into a complicated, different but tempting reality at the same time.

Things to know about Ostia Antica

Ostia was the first colony of Rome, defined maritime precisely because it overlooks the sea. This colony from the end of the fourth century BC, underwent such a development that it allowed it to be inhabited and frequented for nine centuries. Its decline was due to a series of environmental criticalities but this did not prevent it from leaving a large trace of itself in an entire urban network that is devoted to a commercial vocation. Rome made Ostia a colony with a double characteristic. First military and then commercial. During the imperial age, Rome became the largest world power, occupied by about 1.5 million inhabitants, and Ostia provided for the supply in commercial terms of all this population. What distinguishes Ostia from all other cities is substantially the large number of commercial buildings that were inside it, such as those for the storage of goods. Also called “little Rome”, Ostia looked a lot like the capital of the empire also due to the chaos of its neighborhoods, the teeming life, the sidewalks transformed into stalls where a bit of everything was served, and then maybe someone who did a ritual at a temple, a bit like we see today in India. One of the characteristics of the Roman cities was the high density of artisan shops and Ostia was no exception. Ostia was a city known throughout the empire, but why is it called that? Discovering it also means understanding why it was founded at this very point. It is possible to have an answer to all the questions, or at least a percentage, you just need to choose to participate in the aforementioned tour to experience an unprecedented experience.