Ostia Antica: The perfect day tour
The seaport town of Ostia Antica, is bigger than Pompeii, with minimal crowds, and where the visitor can enter another world. Bakeries, fishmongers and restaurants dating back two thousand years ago, eerily stand empty, but pretty well preserved. Mosaics and frescos are waiting to be discovered and miraculously seem as though they were made yesterday.
It’s hard to believe this white marble table was once used in ancient times as a fishmongers serving slab, but here it is standing in the sun, looking relatively modern.
Taberne dei Pescivendoli:
That’s fishmongers to you and I.
Beautiful mosaics
Opus Reticolata: Which is a way of laying Roman bricks in a rectangular pattern.
A Roman bakery:
Via dei Mulini
These mills are 1,800 years old and made of volcanic stone. The Romans ate bread mainly made with corn flour.
More beautiful mosaics
Thermopolium
A wine bar, or more of a bistro, serving hot snacks.
Check out the marble display counter.
Red and yellow wall decorations, the colours of the Rome flag. The Romans were big on walls being decorated with faux painted marble effects. Pretty decadent for a bistro.
If you want to walk down memory lane and taste of slice of daily Roman life, then book a tour of Ostia Antica with Italy’s Best.