This year was my wife Eileen and my 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we decided to go to Italy for 17 days in June - spending our actual anniversary in Florence. I decided not to take my laptop with me, so I wasn't able to blog while we were traveling, so I am now taking the opportunity to tell the story of our "Italy 2008" trip.
This is our last day in Italy, we go home tomorrow. We had thought of taking the train to Pompeii to see the Roman ruins there, but Rick Steves suggest that Ostia Antica (the port of Rome) is as good a visit – and its a free transit ride with our Roma Pass.
Its another hot day. We had out to take the Metro to the “Pyramid” station on Metro Line B. At the Pyramid station we transfer to the Ostiense Regional Railway station to catch the train to Ostia Antica. There is a train waiting in the station, so we jump right on – not literally though. We stand most of the way – there are a lot of Italian families with young kids heading to the “Lido” for a day at the beach.
When we get to the Ostia Antica stop it is a short walk to the entrance to the site. Like the Colosseum it is one of the sites on our Roma Pass – so we get in for free. (I have added it up and the entrance fees to the two sites alone is 19 Euro (11 Euro for the Colosseum and 8 Euro for Ostia Antica) and the pass only cost 20 Euro, so all but 1 Euro of our Metro and bus travel was effectively free).
Ostia Antica is not quite as weel preserved as Pompeii – but it is also not as crowded. We decided at about 3 that we had walked enough – we had barely covered about a third of the site.
That night, we took a risk for dinner – a restaurant Rick Steves recommended that had no menu – you ate what was served! It was a wonderful meal – a traditional Rome dinner.
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