Ancient Ostia

This tour will lead you to one of the most fascinating archeological sites near the city of Rome. The ancient Roman town of Ostia (from the latin:”ostium”, river mouth), was built close to the Tiber river and was connected to Rome by Via Ostiense and by the river itself which was completely sailable at the time. Roman historian Livius (59b.c-17a.d.) assigns the foundation of the city to the fourth king of Rome, Ancus Martius, who lived in the second half of the VII century b.c. The city was originally raised as a military post close to the Harbour along the Tiber, in a strategic spot to control access from the river towards Rome. It used to be a great commercial and logistic site for all the goods directed to Rome and surrounding areas. Cargo ships, full of goods of any sort, reached Ostia from all over the known world areas, especially by Africa, Greece and Middle East. During the imperial age Ostia reached 50.000 inhabitants, time when it got to its maximum urban ans cultural expansion. Ancient Ostia is an extraordinary example of Roman City Planning with its urban system and buildings mostly still intact: nowadays housing, stores, temples, fountains, squares, thermae are still well visible…What’s most amazing of all is the vastity and complexity of the architectural solutions along with the beauty of marble decorations, the precious mosaic flooring, the liveliness of paintings, in most cases perfectly kept.

The first excavations of Ostia took place at the end of 1700’s. From then the Popes, Pius VII and mostly Pius IX, started a systematic campaign to clean up the ancient ruins from the rubble brought by the river during the several floods that almost completely covered the ancient city through the centuries. From here we will move on walking through the Decumanus Maximus,the city’s most important road leading east towards the sea side. Along the Decumanus it is possible to admire some amazing buildings such as stores and shops, thermae, the theatre, pubblic squares,housing, latrines, temples and many more… Length of this tour is approximately 4 hours.

For information, reservations and general inquiries of this tour please Contact Me

Regular ticket: Euros 6.50
Reduced ticket: Euros 3.25