Ancient Ostia ... |
Ostia Antica (Ancient Ostia) is a large archaeological site that was the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, 25 kilometres (15 miles) southwest of current Rome.
The name Ostia (the plural of ostium) derives from Latin os 'mouth'. At the mouth of the Tiber River, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but due to silting the site now lies 3 kilometres (2 miles) from the sea.
The site is noted for the excellent preservation of its ancient buildings, magnificent frescoes and impressive mosaics many of which are black and white and are seen to possibly indicate the nature of shops on some of the streets
Its a more peaceful place to visit than the buslting cetre of Rome or the tourist hotspot of Pompeii
The last picture sdhows the communal toilets where some say that the expression "the rong end of the stick" comes from the fact that since Roman times, people have washed themselves with a sponge on a stick in the outhouse which you shared (having washed) bit you didn not want to pick up wrongly.
The pictures in this section are taken with my E-500 Olympus e-Series camera with a selection of their excellent Zuiko lenses.