The excavations of Ostia Antica

Why it is on the list

Ostia was Rome's harbour. A tufa fort of the second half of the 4th century BC is the oldest thing found there; by the 2nd century BC the town was the capital's main trading port, and in the 2nd century AD it may have held some 50,000 people.¹ What stands today is mostly that 2nd-century town: the Forum, the baths, the horrea where grain was stored, the scholae of the trade guilds, the insulae that were let as flats, and the Capitolium, its main temple.¹ By the middle of the 6th century the town was abandoned.¹ The Museo Ostiense, inside the site, shows how people lived in it.¹

It is the wrong day on a Monday, when the site is closed, and on the first Sunday of the month, when entry is free and the Museo Ostiense does not open.² For a day of gardens and a single emperor's house rather than a whole Roman town, take Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli instead.

How to get it

Buy tickets online through CoopCulture, the park's concessionaire, or at the ticket office by cash or card.² A ticket is EUR 18 and covers every site of the park for eight consecutive days; an audio guide in English is EUR 7 for the long route, EUR 5 for the short one.² The site opens Tuesday to Sunday and on holidays at 08.30 and closes at 19.00 from April to September, 18.30 from 1 to 24 October, 16.30 from 25 October to February and 17.15 in March; the last entry and the ticket office are an hour earlier.² It is closed on 25 December.²

Guided visits are run by CoopCulture: for a group, write to tour@coopculture.it.² For anything on the day, the site's number is +39 06 39967950.² Wear comfortable shoes; the ground is uneven.²

Discretion

The visitors' car park by the entrance is unattended, open 07.30 to 19.30; leave nothing of value in the car.² Drones are banned: the site lies in the no-fly zone of Fiumicino airport.² Eating and picnics are not allowed inside; the Cafè degli Scavi is within the site.²