TUESDAY 
OSTIA ANTICA

Across the street from the thermopolium is this insula. It was a kind of apartment building or tenement where the lower middle-classes lived.
Up the steps to see the view from what seemed like it would have been the third floor.
Looking back down to the thermopolium and Via Casa di Diana.
It would have been a crowded neighborhood.
The big Capitolium temple was dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.
From the top of the temple toward the Forum.
On the opposite end of the Forum is the Temple of Roma and Augustus.
The basilica.
Old Romany things. The sign there says "Frammenti appartenenti al Frontone postico del Tempio di Roma ed Augusto." Using my expert knowledge of Italian (and Bing Translator), I know that these are fragments from the Temple of Roma and Augustus.
I was watching one of Rick Steves' shows on PBS one Sunday before the trip and he had a segment from Ostia. He had a seat on one of these benches, but they are not just benches. They are toilets. This is the latrine for the baths. He says that the cutout in front is for the wet sponge on a stick. They didn't have toilet tissue back then.
The hole on the floor at the entrance was for the revolving door.
Some buildings in the bath, a few columns and another headless statue.
You know it was a really beautiful day for a visit. Clear skies, bright sunshine and temperatures not too cool but not warm.
Faber College. That looks like Faber College, right? The guys of Delta Tau Chi did wear Roman togas at their parties. For those of you who don't get the references, go watch Animal House.
There was no sign indicating what these pots were for. It was a port town, so they could have contained just about anything.
This is the museum.
It is not a large museum at all, but they have some good local relics.
Little statues in various states of breakage.
Kissing children? I don't know, your guess is as good as mine. That foot at the bottom looks pretty big though.
Headless naked women. On the plus side you wouldn't have to listen to them talk incessantly about things you don't care about. But on the other hand fellatio would be out of the question.
Back in the day, people used to decorate their homes with busts of the men of the house.
A big sarcophagus.
A small sarcophagus.
Antonius Pius and the missus.
On the way back to the train station I passed this little excavation. It is interesting to think that even a distance away from the archeological site are other remains buried near and under modern buildings.

TO ANZIO AND NETTUNO