Our first stop of the day was the Via Appia (Appian Way) which we arrived at by bus. We first went to the villa of Maxentius that had a giant circus which is home to the best preserved spina in the Roman world. They held chariot racing in this circus. We all sat down to read a section of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria. Ovid explained how he believed that meeting a woman to the chariot races at the circus would be a good idea for a date. This poem was considered scandalous and many people think that this poem is part of what made Augustus banish Ovid from Rome. 

On our way out, we encountered a very cute cat but we simply watched him from afar. 
We then went to the tomb of Cecilia Metella which was giant. Our main event at the tomb was wandering around to see all of the sculptures there.
Afterwards we all walked along the ancient road that is the Appian Way. We stopped briefly to read a selection from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron, the ultimate “bad boy” of the romantic era. Then we were off to Ostia. 





On our bus ride to Ostia, we spent a lot of time stuck behind two trucks that had crashed into each other and we’re blocking the intersection. We all shared pocket coffee to keep the morale up (an Italian candy that consists of liquid coffee coated in chocolate). We finally arrived in Ostia after the bus fiasco and we enjoyed a nice lunch at a cafe. Food included pasta, sandwiches, and croissants. Then we explored Ostia. 

Ostia’s name comes from the Latin word for mouth (os, oris) because it is situated at the mouth of the river and next to the Tyrrhenian sea, about 45 minutes away from the city center of Rome. This seaside town was the port city of Ancient Rome and today vast ruins remain similar to Pompeii and Herculaneum. However instead of being a town of immense wealth like Pompeii and Herculaneum, Ostia was a town for the common people of the Roman Empire. Instead of the expansive domūs (essentially huge townhouses) we had seen before, Ostia is filled with insulae instead, which were the apartment buildings of the ancient world. Because so much of what we read from the ancient world is from the upper class, the ruins of Ostia help to diversify our perspective. An interesting fact about the town is that is was largely excavated by Mussolini in preparation for the world fair that was going to be hosted by Italy right before WWII (it didn’t happen).

Here is a picture taken from the top of an ínsula with a view of the town. 



Here we can see the ruins of some pots that would have held grains and food. By keeping them under the earth, the Romans stabilized the temperature and preserved the food.



Here are the ruins of a Jewish synagogue, as is evident by the menorah. In the polytheistic ancient Rome, Judaism was expelled to outside the city limits and so the synagogue was set up in Ostia. 



Here is a picture of a well preserved bar. Moya is the bartender in this scenario.



Here is a picture of a wall in the baths. The tubes lining the wall are a hypocaust heating system—hot air would have been flowing through in order to heat the bath. We also were able to go below the baths and get a good look at the inner plumbing system. 



Here is a public bathroom. 





Here we have a lararium, which was a shrine to the household gods. It is made of brick, a contrast to the marble we saw in Pompeii and Herculaneum. The material used is revealing of the wealth level of the towns. 


Lastly, we have a picture of a mosaic of a dolphin eating an octopus, which would have lay before the entrance to the fishmonger. 



At the end of the day, we took the bus back to Rome and enjoyed a delicious dinner full of Italian food.








Buona notte!
 Joan and Lila

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