Italian adventure. Ostia
We are going to tell you some things about Ostia today, a resort-town situated 30 minutes from Rome. How did we get there? Simple…our cousins and aunt have been living there for a few years now and every time that we visit them, beside that fact that we enjoy the beach and the sun, we also get to go to Rome. Ostia, or Lido di Ostia on its official name, is a city with 80 000 inhabitants, extremely populated during summer. You can easily go there from Rome and because of that we saw plenty of times people with flip flops and bathing suit on them on the train. The harbor is 2 km from the city center and can host up to 790 boats, having a long shore with terraces, restaurants and stores. It’s one of our favorite spots in Ostia, ideal for evening strolls. Being a city situated by the sea, the humidity can reach up to 60% so we recommend that girls should forget about the flat iron and other styling instruments because all your hard work will be in vain…in just 3 minutes the humidity will ruin everything you’ve done to your hair.
On our trip to Italy we stayed for a week at our cousins’ place and we were able to fully relax and not care about the time pressure. Leaving Siena, we arrived at their place in the evening and after a few hours spent in the car we were really happy when they greeted us with our favorite pizza and a wonderful delicacy dessert pizza with Nutella, ricotta cheese and fruits. Having visited them so many times in every season we found our favorite pizzeria in town and the first thing we do when we get there is to ask for dessert pizza.
We also made time for some trips to Rome but it was extremely hot outside and decided not to mingle too much with the tourists and stayed mostly in Ostia. We started our mornings with the traditional ‘colazione’ at our cousin’s favorite bar, followed by walks through Ostia and hours spent catching up with everyone, the evening ending with the best cocktails is town at a small bar just near our cousin’s apartment building and at the many beach bars or just enjoying a nice pizza on the beach. Since our cousin has a cute 5 year old kid and 2 dogs we didn’t realize when the time flew by.
We also made time for the beach, but in the late afternoon when it wasn’t so hot outside and we were able to make some cool sand castles without a heatstroke. You find here your typical beach vendors, selling everything from coconuts to bathing suits. We also went to Zoomarine, an aqua park that’s perfect for families with kids. You spend all day with various kind of activities and you don’t even realize when it’s time to go. We saw shows with dolphins, parrots, penguins and water acrobatics. They also have a cinema, some water slides and many pools. The kids that were with us were absolutely ecstatic about this trip.
Many people go to Ostia to visit Ostia Antica. Although is not that well preserved as Pompeii, together with Rome it is one of the oldest ancient cities in the peninsula, the oldest archaeological remains dating back from the 4th century BC. The city was supposedly founded by Ancus Marcius, one of the 7th legendary rulers of Rome, most likely as a colony, making it the very first colony founded by the Romans. Although we’ve been many times to Ostia, we never managed to see Ostia Antica. But you know what they say, that’s a good reason to come back, so see you soon Ostia!
