If you like Roman ruins, you have come to the right place.
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I hate ruins, Roman or anybody else's.
I still think this is the right place.
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The trouble with ruins is that they are ... well ... ruined.
The actual ruins when they were alive would have had painted sculpture, furniture, wall hangings, and everything would have been complete.
Ruins don't look anything like what Ancient Ostia looked like in any period.
And of course, the markets don't have any of the wonderful stuff that the Romans would have been buying.
So I spend my free choice days going to see beautiful Italian places that are in somewhat better shape.
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That said, the Ancient Ostia Archaeological Park is a beautiful place to be.
It just works well as a park.
Ostia is actually incredibly well endowed with parks.
The Ancient Archaeology park is just one in a series.
The ones that I have seen are extremely beautiful.
So in the case of Ancient Ostia,
I found a nice shady place underneath a spreading tree,
Made myself comfortable sitting against the trunk,
And looked at the trees and the birds and the ancient stuff and the people coming and the people going.
Looking at broken down stone foundations is no worse than looking at a New England stone wall.
It was a fine way to spend a sunny afternoon.
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They sell very cool t-shirts at the souvenir store if you have friends who like images of Ancient Rome.
The other parks have the trees and the birds and the people and the tranquility.
But they don't have t-shirts -
Or 2000 years of history. read more