We took a trip back to the 1st-2nd century AD to the town of Ostia Antica. It was located at the mouth of the Tiber River, where it met the Mediterranean .... at that time. It was the first Roman colony and was important as the source of food for Rome and for it's naval defense. Unfortunately for it's citizens, the river silted up and then changed it's coarse and the town was no longer a port!. It was gradually abandoned and covered by silt.

We used our Roma cards to take the metro to the San Paola urban rail station, then a 30 minute train ride to Ostia. The weather was perfect though it was getting a bit too hot by the time we went home. The site is vast though unlike Pompeii, it's been stripped of it's marble, fancy mosaics and murals, leaving the place looking like a red brick town, a la Williamsburg, VA.

There are some very interesting and detailed B&W mosaics in the market square, used to indicate the nature of a given business to those unable to read Latin, and in the baths complex.

Dinner tonight at Back at "La Cicala" I had pasta with wild boar ragu, mom had the tamer version, roast pork in green pepper sauce. Live music at this tiny little restaurant tonight; an Italian acoustic guitar player joined by a Brazilian percussionist. Too full for gelato after dinner; maybe tomorrow afternoon?

Walked - 5.3 miles