Rome Day 2

Tuesday May 17

Today we ventured out of Rome on two forms of public transportation. We walked over to the terminal and got caught in the crowds to board the Metro (subway) and ride out of the city for about 30 minutes, standing and holding on. We realized that we should have waited to ride the Metro after morning rush hour as we were squeezed in the car with everyone traveling to work and we now sympathize with sardines in a can.  Rule #3 for today: wait until after rush hour to ride the public transportation in Rome. Next we transferred to the train for another 30 minute ride to the ancient city of Ostia Antica, about 20 kilos SW of Rome. This was not crowded so we both got seats. This was Rome’s ancient seaport and was discovered in the early 20^th century. It was covered with mud for over a thousand years and is so well preserved that it is considered the Pompeii of the area. It is an ongoing archeological project. It took us about 5 hours to walk through the ruins of this massive city and we probably only saw about a quarter of what has been uncovered thus far. Much of it still has not been excavated. We even got lost in the ruins and realized that this was one BIG ancient city!

We reversed our travels and rode back to Rome and spent another hour or more visiting the National Museum. We were tired but still in awe seeing so many famous ancient statues, frescoes and mosaics. It was spectacular to say the least. It was almost sensory overload today but our Italian has sure been improving as we moved through the areas that we visited.

We were tired so we rested for a few hours after our touring and went out to eat at about 7 pm. We walked around the neighborhood until we found a trattoria (sp) where we ate outside and both of us ordered a small traditional pizza. These are so different than what we are used to in the US. The crusts are as thin as a tortilla and the topping is basically just tomato sauce and seasonings. Not all goopy with extra toppings so we really enjoyed being able to taste just the basic Italian pizza. How wonderful. Rule #4: don’t order water in Rome as they charge as much for water as beer. It is bottled water but the tap water is excellent in Rome.

When we returned back to the hotel, we forced ourselves to stay awake as long as possible hoping to sleep but unfortunately we both were awake much of the night again. Our bodies still have had difficulty getting used to the time difference.

Photos: ancient amphnitheater, Donna among the ruins.