Protesting in Rome

The Catacombs of San Callisto and the old port city of Ostia Antica were the plan for today. Unfortunately there was a protest march that prevented us from getting to the catacombs. Seems that the bus line we needed to take was on the protest route and the bus was canceled for the day. That was rather annoying.

So we skipped the bus to the catacombs and took the train out through the country. This was very different than the ancient part of Rome. Out in the country with trees, grass lands, open space and a lot less cars.

The old ruins at Ostia Antica are in much better shape than those at the forum. The port city used to be on the coast where ships could dock and unload but centuries of silt build up from the Tiber River have push the coast line miles west.

When you first enter Ostia Antica, there's a great little necropolis where many of people of Imperial Rom were buried. Continuing down the main road, there are lots of interesting buildings, many with wonderful mosaics.

The main road is more of a collection of stones that happen to be near each other and almost horizontal. It's interesting to imagine ox drawn carts overflowing with goods that were just brought in from the sea and being brought to one of the warehouses for storage before being transported to Rome.

From Ostia Antica, we hopped back onto the train and made our way back to the Spanish Steps. We walked back to the apartment from there visiting shops and the newly opened christmas market in Piazza Navona. Unfortunately only around 1/2 of the stalls were open but there were people everywhere!

Along the way we stopped for some gelato from Gelateria Produzione Artigian. I had mint and chocolate chip, great mint, ok chocolate chip. The presentation was great.

We had dinner this evening at a not so impressive restaurant. The service was shoddy and half of us thought the food was good, half didn't. Not that great of a way to end the day.

So what do you do? Head on over to Fior di Luna for some gelato! I had the most excellent pistachio and crema clamente! (*****) Good stuff!