We are on to day #2 of our Roman holiday.  Having spent the first day wandering around the city of Rome, Tim and I thought it would be a good idea to spend the second day seeing some more provincial sights.  Tim's dentist, of all people, recommended that we go to a place called Ostia Antica, which was a port town in the days of Ancient Rome.  There was some kind of natural disaster which made the river change it's course at some point during the time of the Roman Empire, and within a few years the river had changed shape so much that Ostia Antica was no longer a port town, and therefore soon became deserted.  But for several hundred years Ostia Antica was a thriving, bustling area, housing both wealthy merchants and poor workers. 
     So, because it was a port town, it had a very busy market square.  It was actually a huge square, lined with stalls which each represented some kind of trade or business.  The fascinating thing was that these stalls were made rather permanent because the floor around the square was decorated with mosaics which depicted the different trades.  So, if you needed a ship, you would go to the ship-makers stall, which you could recognize, among other things, by the floor mosaic which depicted ships:
    

    
     Here are a few more mosaics from the market square.  I believe one was for corn dealers, and one was for fisherman, and I'm not sure what the other one represented!  I found them absolutely fascinating.

 

     Right next to the market square was the amphitheater.  It was huge, and you could hear people speaking at the bottom when you were at the top.  Amazing!

 

 



     
    




     We then explored other parts of the town.  We went to a more residential part, which had the remains of houses and flats that were still at least three stories high.  In the middle of the residential area was a quite well preserved 'thermopolium', which was basically a small restaurant.  The countertops were still standing, and the layout of the place was still recognizable - where the fireplace was, where the eating area would have been.  Even some of the artwork on the walls had been preserved.

     The relentless sunshine, the unforgiving heat and being on her feet constantly finally got the better of Abigail, and she decided to rest on the ruins of the bakery of Ostia Antica.  She was wearing her Roman goddess dress, though, so somehow that makes lying on an ancient historical sight OK.

    Near the residential area was the forum, or the town center, I guess.  Here was an area lined with pillars on either side, with one end boasting a Roman temple, which would have been full of statues of the gods.

     Just off of the forum were the ruins of a very large building which they used for public assemblies and town meetings.  The advanced political practices of the Romans never ceases to amaze me.
     After we had explored the area around the forum, we headed off further into the town.  This seemed to be a mostly residential part of the town, but for wealthy people.  Instead of apartment buildings, there were more spacious houses.  Romans had shrines in their houses for different gods.  In these pictures Abigail and Imogen wandered around a room of one of the houses which was a shrine to the goddess Diana. 

 

 

     The room of another Roman house, with a very important ancient statue:

 

 

     Toward the end of the town there were some extensive baths, still with the floor mosaics and painting on the walls:

 

 

     In the mid-afternoon, we started to the trip back to our hotel.  Of course you can stay forever at these old places, so to be able to judge when to call it a day can be a challenge, especially for Tim.  But it was very, very hot, and we had to be on our feet ALL the time, which, combined with the fact that we had been on our feet for about 15 hours the day before, meant that we were all getting quite uncomfortable by mid-afternoon.  Plus, the kids had begged and begged and begged us to go swimming at the pool in the hotel.  Neither Tim or I had thought this was a particularly good idea, but through their constant begging it became clear to us that the kids had some kind of special vision of 'swimming in Rome' that was very important for them to achieve, so we gave in and spent part of our afternoon swimming. 

     After that, it was time to my special vision:  eating out at a proper Italian restaurant.  We decided to go to a place called 'The Fish Market'.  It was a different experience.  All the dishes were made with fish, and you had to fill out these very plain forms telling them what you wanted to order, much like a wholesale fishmarket, I guess.  We decided to just try a bit of everything, and share everything with each other.  I'm so glad we went.  We all had a great time, and the food was presented artfully and tasted fabulous.

     Here is the salmon which Tim ordered.  It hadn't been cooked, just marinated, and it was the most tender and delicious piece of fish I have ever tasted: 

 

    
     Here is my fried octopus:

 

      These were some special-battered giant prawns:

     We did have a fish-hater in our midst:  Imogen calls herself a 'pesciphobian'.  But at The Fish Market they were fab and agreed to do a gnocchi for her with just tomatoes, rather than with the octopus which is listed in the menu.

    Happy children, anxiously awaiting their gourmet food:

     The restaurant was a very original design.  It basically looked like the inside of a warehouse or even a garage.  All the furnishings were 'shabby chic', and no two chairs or tables were alike!  Everything was mismatched and recycled.  But the food was amazing - they held nothing back in terms of menu choices and presentation.  It was also quite the happening place.  We got there at 8pm, and we were the only ones there; but by the time we left at 10:30pm, the place was heaving.

 

 

     Well, we're still on our first 24 hours in Rome.  We were seeing incredible sights and learning about amazing historical events that still impact us today.  How were the children, you may ask?  For the most part, they were fantastic.  They were mesmerized by the Colosseum - no problems there.   They were up for seeing Palatine hill, and were good sports about the fact that it was hot with no shade, very few toilets, and no signs to explain what we were seeing (actually, I think they liked that about Rome.  It meant that Tim and I couldn't stop every 5 seconds and demand that they read up on every statue and building they encountered).  We were on our feet all day and that was tiring for them - as it was for me and Tim - but they didn't complain excessively.
     But, they are kids, and, unlike Tim, they do not have infinite attention spans or miraculously constant blood sugar levels.  By the time we had made it through to the far end of the forum, Samuel and Imogen had started playing some form of 'tig', which led to both of them trying to touch the other one without being noticed.  We have a few pictures which we took of the forum, in which the 'tig' phenomenon also happened manifested itself - a manifestation which I did not notice until I was studying the pictures weeks later.

 

 
     So, increasingly both Samuel and Imogen had to be told off for fighting and annoying each other.  Then Abigail got told off - I don't even remember what it was about.  She started to protest and defend herself, and then seeing that it was no use arguing with her parents, she did the next best thing to stomping away from us in a huff:  withdrawing from us by hiding as much of her face as possible.

     By the time we had walked out the far gate of the forum - which looks like this ....

 .... and discovered that the forum continues on the other side of the road, so that when you go out of the gate and walk a few steps you see this ...

     .... it was way past lunchtime.  We kept promising the kids we would find the some food, but we couldn't find what looked like a decent place to eat.  So we kept walking and walking, trying to both sightsee and stop somewhere for food.  We ended up in the Jewish quarter, where historically Jews have lived for centuries.  It is a quaint part of Rome, with narrow, windy, quiet streets filled with all sorts of little shops and flats.  Here is a shop devoted to chilies - dried chilies, chili relishes, chili jams, etc:

     Other scenes from the Jewish quarter:

     One of the highlights from the Jewish quarter, for me and I think for all of us, was discovering a wonderful little artisan biscotti shop.  When you walk in, you are greeted by jars and jars of different kinds of homemade biscotti.  I can't remember many of the flavors now - chocolate orange, pistachio, oatmeal - but I think we picked about 10 flavors in all and they were all fabulous.  As we split the biscotti between us we never came across a flavor we didn't like.  We were all eating the biscotti and saying to one another 'Oh, taste mine, this is a good one'.    

 

 

     After we ate some pizza and the biscotti, and rested a bit in the quiet streets of the Jewish quarter, our energy levels were much higher and we were feeling ready to take on more hard-core sights of Rome. We headed up toward the Pantheon, passing probably 100 different historical places of interest on the way.  We found ourselves strolling through the part of Rome where Catholic priests can buy their robes - and it wasn't anywhere near Vatican city! 

 

 

 

     We got to the Pantheon.  Here is the view from the street, and from the porch:

 

 

 

 

     I had no idea that it was such an amazing feat of engineering!  It is famous because, among other things, there is a perfect hole in the middle of the roof.  Tim, our resident engineer, was truly stunned. 

     It was, of course, a Roman temple, so there would have been statues to the various gods in the different alcoves.  But after Christianity became the official religion in Rome, then the Pantheon was converted into a Christian church, with statues and paintings of Jesus and Mary and early Christian saints.  It seemed to be heavily stressed in our sight-seeing in Rome that if it wasn't for the Catholic church, most of the ancient Roman sights would have gone completely to ruin.  If there is no money to simply keep up a building for tourist purposes, then the building has to be used in order to be kept in good condition.  Turn an ancient sight into a church, and you have a reason to keep it up.  So, the interior now looks like this:

 

 

     Tim was also fascinated by the outside of the Pantheon:

 

 



     Then it was time to fulfill another life-long ambition: to eat gelato in Rome.  It just so happened that right across the street from the Pantheon was one of the most fabulous gelato shops in the whole of Rome; not that we knew that at the time - that only became clear to me over the course of the next few days as I never found gelato quite as good as this.

     Then we went off in search of the Trevi fountain.  Walking in the streets of Rome around 7pm can be rather tricky, as everyone you pass seems to be trying to sell you something.  If you show interest, they expect you to buy something and get quite rude if you decide not to buy anything.  We thought we had escaped all of that, and then we came across two men dressed in gladiators.  They saw us admiring their costumes, and immediately came over started posing for the camera:

 

 

     I thought it was all in good fun, but then they wanted money for their services.  Years ago Tim and I stopped carrying cash - not for safety reasons, but because we don't have alot of money, and having an empty wallet somehow helps us feel that we are being virtuous by not spending the money that is not in our wallet.  This is a bit of a fantasy, because really it just stops us from being able to pay for parking or doing other things that we actually need to do that require cash.  So, Tim had only about 3 spare euros on him, and these gladiators were asking for 10.   Actually, they were demanding 10.  It was a bit awkward, and they were not happy.  But somehow we escaped without them pulling out guns and making us go to the cashpoint.

     Finally we made it to the Trevi fountain.  A big, beautiful Baroque structure, it was surrounded by perhaps 75% of the tourists in Rome that day, but it was still worth seeing.

 

     It was near the end of a very long day.  Our feet were swollen, we had lived off of snack food and water, and we still had a long trek back to the hotel.  But the kids were still smiling.  I was very proud of them.