Today we go out from the city taking a train from “Piramide” station to
Ostia Antica, the ruins of the ancient city which was the harbour of
the Roman Empire capital. In our return trip, we’ll take advantage of
this same train stopping by Basilic of Saint Paul Outside the Walls for
visiting it.
The spots marked at the image are:
0- Grand Hotel Tiberio
1- Piramide
2- Ostia Antica
3- Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls
Después
We start early this journey as there is a long way
out of the city to Ostia Antica. We start the trip around 9 AM. It is
the same way than yesterday’s but leaving two stops after “Colosseo”
station, in “Piramide”.
We must go out to the street to get “Porta de San
Paolo” (Saint Paul’s Gate) train station and we can see what is giving
the name to the train station and, also, to the metro one.
There, we get into the train with destination C.
Colombo which, in less than one hour, covers the seven stops until our
goal. There, there is a short walk from the station to the entrance to
the ruins of the city which was the harbour of the ancient Rome. We
save the 8€ admission fee completing the two visits from our Rome Pass.
At the moment of setting one foot in the complex
we already know we’re going to enjoy this visit: we’re alone and can
interact with the ruins at will and everything seems to be well signed
to know what we’re seeing.
0- Entrance
1- Baths of Neptune
2- Theater
3- Thermopolium
4- House of Diana
5- Capitolium
6- Baths and Temple of Augustus and Rome
7- Horrea Epagathiana
8- House of Amor and Psique
9- Baths of the Seven Sages
10- Trajan's School
11- Harbour
We can see in the maps of the ruins set in display
every when and then along the way this place is very large and we’re
following the main stoned road, Decumanus Maximus, with no plan.
After a short walk between trees and building
foundations which seems to grow around from the ground as the
vegetation itself, the way has taken us to what really looks as a city.
We have the Baths of Neptune at our right, with a couple og magnificent
mosaics as floor for two of its rooms.
Then we reach the Theater, where the other
visitors appear, with even a school group trip with their teacher
giving history lessons in one of the more appropriate school rooms I
can imagine for such matters.
Things are getting more difficult when we arrive
to a place where streets and blocks are appearing at both sides, so it
is not just a thing of following one main road, we must explore a
larger area instead to get as much as possible.
We reach a street with big houses (the called by
Romans as “Domus”). It should be a good neighborhood where the rich
people lived. We explore the Thermopolium also, the remains of a
tavern, which we can show in this video:
Then we arrive to the Forum, which we already
could see before leaving the Decumanus Maximus road to explore the
houses at our right. We can see the remains of Capitolium and the
Temple of Augustus and Rome here.
Then we take the “Via della Foce” to explore that
remote area completely alone. We find buildings where we still can go
upstairs to the second floor. We enjoy exploring the Baths of the Seven
Sages, which I show in this video:
It’s 12:30 PM when we understand we must start our
return trip and we’re not going to visit the harbour, the most remote
spot of this complex. We try to come back through unexplored areas.
This has been an excellent visit: exploring an
ancient city at will is rare pleasure.
It’s 1:20 PM when we leave the archaeological area
and 1:40 PM when we leave the train one stop before the end of the
line. We are in “Basilica S. Paolo” station and going to visit the
Basilica giving name to this station and known as Saint Paul Outside of
Walls.
It is huge, as we can deduce from the walk all
along its side to the entrance.
Inside, it’s size is shown in magnificent white marble, big statues and
column and the remote ceilings very decorated with paintings.
The altarpiece has the relic giving sense to the whole thing: the
chains used against Saint Paul.
There is a beautiful and animated Nativity scene
here. Outside, a small garden completes a beautiful image of one of its
façades.
It’s 2:15 PM when we complete today’s last visit
and only have in front getting our lunch. Our first thought is going to
the hotel and lunching somewhere around as I think I’ve found a shortcut for our trip from this morning:
instead of taking the metro in “Piramide” to switch to train for one
stop until hotel, we can directly take the train stopping at hotel, as
the map I’m checking shows line FM3 – our line – starting in Piramide
too.
We do that but, when we see the name for the first
station is “Trastevere”, and knowing the amount of restaurants on that
neighborhood as yesterday we were there, we decide to go out here.
Unfortunately our decision comes just one second later than the train
doors are closed and we leave in the next station: Quattro Venti. We
think one station cannot be far from Trastevere.
Somehow we find a residential neighborhood which
is not appearing detailed in any map. As we’re hungry and we can see a
restaurant from far, we walk down some meters to getting in Bruno ai 4 venti. It looks good
and modern and, once we get the menu, expensive too.
We order one single course for each of us thinking one
dish of pasta by more than 10€ must be big, but it results to be
standard size and we add a few “antipasti” to get full. We pay a some
more than 30€ in total.
We come back to the train to cover the three train station to the
hotel, where we only go out for some snacks as diner, just around.
We’ve walked enough for today.
shortcut for our trip from this morning:
instead of taking the metro in “Piramide” to switch to train for one
stop until hotel, we can directly take the train stopping at hotel, as
the map I’m checking shows line FM3 – our line – starting in Piramide
too.