Rome - Day IV

Since there were many tourists everywhere already on Saturday evening, because of the holiday on Sunday, we decided to spend the day outside of the city centre. At least far away from Vatican.
During the train ride I took the opportunity to listen to the personal guide of the two ladies from the US opposite to us. She told them (and me) a lot about Ostia Antica, which was our destination.
 



In Ostia Antica was the harbor of ancient Rome. It is now a very large area with antique buildings in a relatively good state. Therefore the place gives a good impression of the structure of an antique city.

 It is possible to enter the ruins, which leads to surprising discoveries now and then. We were really early, right after the opening, so there were not many people. The first pictures were taken at the ruins along the Via delle Tombe.











This is a mosaic from the second century in the Neptune baths. It is covering the whole floor and is well preserved and really impressive . There were many mosaics in Ostia Antica. Sometimes we walked over them, because we didn`t even realise that they were there. 
There is also a small theatre. And lots of pine trees. I had to sort out at least one hundred photos of trees.

One of my favourite pictures. Love the colours.

It is really hard to believe, that the ancient city was much closer to the sea than it is now. But the Tiber river is right next to it.

Lots of lizards were sitting on the warm stones and they were running away incredibly fast as soon as someone approached them. Of course I had to try again and again, until I could capture one with my camera.

We spent about three hours in Ostia Antica, but I think you could as well spend a whole day there. With a map and some sort of guide to read about the different sites, it is really interesting. 

The theatre of Ostia Antica

 We went back on the train and a few stations farther to the seaside. I love the sea. The sound of the waves always reminds me of my childhood. But I must admit that I couldn`t help thinking about all the refugees drowning there on the way to Europe... A really sad thought.
Still I enjoyed spending a few hours there, with the salty air, looking at the water.
We had a fantastic pizza, before returning to Rome in the afternoon.

Via Appia Antica

We took the bus to Domine Quo Vadis. A small church outside of Rome. It is said that this was the spot where St Peter met Jesus and after that returend to Rome. Inside there are only a few seats, the altar and two paintings showing the crucifying of Jesus and Peter.
After that short stop we had to hurry a bit. I hadn`t expected the church to be open and I wanted to see the catacombes, that were closing in one hour.

If I ever happen to have a lot of time in Rome, I will certainly spend more time on the Via Appia Antica. There is a lot more to see and even the short part we saw looked good.

I can`t show you pictures of the Callixuts Catacombe, because it was not allowed to take photos down there. I went down there with a german guide and a small group. My former neighbour, who was with me in Rome, waited upstairs. I think she was grateful for the break. And down there is no light and it`s all scary and so on...
Anyway, I loved all that. There are three storeys over an area of 20 kilometres, so I only saw a small part of it. But even that part was impressive. It was very dark, except where we were standing. So if you were the last person in the group, there was hardly any light. Once I was standing next to a guy and we were listening to our guide. Next to us, everything was dark. What happened next was, that he wanted to lean against the wall. But there was no wall and he almost fell into a corridor that we couldn`t see. From this moment on I paid attention and now and then I could sense a change in the movement of the air and in the temperature, what told me that there were more corridors.
The catacombe di calisto may not be the biggest one, but it is the oldest christian catacombe. There are really old frescoes. One of the most interesting parts is the crypt of the Popes. But the crypt of st Cecilia is also interesting, with many frescoes and mosaics as well as a (relatively modern) sculpture of her by Stefano Maderno.
Many of the graves have been opened and are empty, but some still have the original marble plate in place.
All in all, I could have spent a lot more time down there.

Terme di Caracalla

The weather was keeping up and I could convince my former neighbour to to go to the baths of Caracalla. They were the second largest baths in Rome. The interesting thing about these antique thermae is, that they are so well preserved. Large areas of the floor are still covered with mosaic. And it is very impressive to see the dimension these baths once had.





















Unfortuantely it was starting to rain heavily. Within minutes the streets around the baths were flooded. And we were wet to the bone before we found a restaurant.

























The rain stopped eventually and I found a good spot for photographing the Colosseo.

It was not that late, so we went to the Quattro Fontane. These are four Fountains located at the intersection of two roads not far from Barberini. It had started to rain again, so the photos are not that good, because I had to hold my umbrella and because of the rain.


The next photo stop was at the Fontana die Trevi. I think I liked it more in the early morning light, but maybe that was because of the other circumstances, like less people in the morning and better weather.

Finally we just had to eat icecream at Giolitti, in spite of the weather. There are dozens of different flavours (in the picture you can not even see half of the flavours they have there) and I dare say that it was the best ice cream I`ve ever eaten.  So I spent the last evening very happy and very wet with blackberry and blueberry ice cream in the middle of Rome.

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