Luxury Driving Tour from Rome to Ostia Antica

A fantastic example of a Roman apartment building. While it is unlikely that the Roman goddess Diana actually lived here, the structure gets its name from a fresco painting of the goddess found at the entrance, dating back to 150 AD!

Since grain was such an important part of keeping all those Roman legions well fed, it stands to reason that the bakery was also an essential cog in the wheel. Ostia Antica is home to a wonderfully preserved bakery, complete with mill stones that were used to grind the grain into flour. It is a must see when visiting Ostia. If you stay long enough, you might even start to catch a whiff of freshly baked bread!

There is nothing quite like a refreshing beverage and a hot meal after a hard day of work. This was no different for the Romans. A Thermopolium was the fast food equivalent of the ancient world. Here you could stop buy for a delicious bowl of soup and a glass of fine Roman wine. These were all over the Roman world, but the one in Ostia Antica happens to be one of the finest.

As the port city of Rome, Ostia must have had quite a bit of traffic. Traders coming in from all across the Mediterranean stopped here. The hub for all these traders was the Piazza of the Corporations, where shipping companies from all around would come in to make contracts with local merchants. The highlight here are the mosaics all around the piazza–each one unique to the company that set up shop there.

It’s not everyday that a highlight of a site is its public bathrooms, but Ostia Antica is just full of surprises. These beautifully preserved latrines show that the needs of the everyday Roman were not that different from our needs today. Traces of the plumbing still remain, as well as pieces of the marble seating. When Emperor Vespasian was criticized for charging the people to use the latrines, he famously said “Unlike urine, money doesn’t stink.”

Some may point to the gladiatorial games or chariot races as the favored activities of everyday Romans, but both of these institutions fall short when confronted with the Romans' love of bathing! It is clear just how important bathing was based on the sheer number of bathhouses found throughout all ancient Roman cities. The Baths of Neptune draw their name from the stunning mosaics of swirling sea creatures that decorate the floors of the complex.

In the same way that the Romans were so concerned about bathing, they were also concerned with keeping their clothes clean, but the way they went about this seems a little strange to us today. The main cleaning agent they used was urine!