Roman Railways, Roads, and Ruins

Our final two days in Rome, we toured several of the major ancient Rome sites.  Our first destination was Ostia Antica, which was a working port town founded in 620 B.C.  It is a 45 minute train ride from downtown Rome.  Sunday morning we woke up early and crammed ourselves into the crowded train that was bound toward the Mediterranean Coast.

Thankfully, this was a "hands-on" experience and the children were able to run and climb pretty much anywhere they wanted!

This is a view of the Roman baths in Ostia.  The tile mosaic is not original, but gives a good idea of what you would have seen 2000 years ago.

And as with every good Roman city, it was fully equipped with an amphitheatre.

It was a warm, sunny day but there was a nice breeze at the top of the theatre, so we stopped to grab a snack and a quick break.

Here the children are pictured at the steps of the temple.

While exploring some of the living quarters, this dog came up and literally buried it's bone in the corner.  Drew loves animals, espcially dogs.  He watched the dog for a while, and then turned around unprompted and exclaimed, "Me love ruffies!" 

We toured the courtyard of the city's restaurant where the towns people could pick up prepared hot food and eat around the fountain.

When we stopped for ice cream, Ethan spotted this statue and couldn't resist another silly pose.

Our final stop was the Forum.  Note Drew in the bottom left of the following picture.  All three kids were such troopers.

Finally, our tour was finished and we packed up the kids to hike back to the train station. 

We decided the stroller would be more of a hastle than help on this excursion, so we had to resort to "creative parenting" in order to make a quick exit. 

The Burgin clan - Ostia Antica, Italy

After going back to the apartment for some much needed rest and dinner, we headed back out on the advice of our trusty travel guide, Rick Steves.  It was suggested that we make our way up to the nothern part of the city to the Villa Borghese and take a leisurely ride on the #3 tram back down to the Colosseum. 

The evening started out well enough as we found this great piazza complete with water fountain to entertain the kids. 

It was a beautiful, mild evening as we made our way to the tram stop.  After waiting at the stop for at least 25 minutes, we were beginning to suspect that the evening might not go quite as planned.  Finally, we caught a glimpse the #3, only it was a bus, not a cozy tram.  A little disappointed, we boarded the bus only to have it stop about 100 yards down the road and the driver tell us to "Get off", because that was the end of the line and we had to wait for the next bus.  We then proceeded to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus, which after ~ 5 stops became the most crowded bus I'd ever been on!  We have never been so thankful to reach a destination as we were when we came to the Coloseum stop. 

Thankfully, however, it was worth all the hassle as we had a wonderful glimpse into the night life of the Eternal City with its cafes and perfectly lit ancient remains.

For our final day we explored more ancient sites and our first stop was a return to the Colosseum, but this time in daylight.

We purchased a Roma Pass, which allowed us to completely skip the 2 hour line and head straight to the Audioguide booth to get everyone set for touring the Colosseum. 

The audioguides did a great job of keeping the kids attention and added a lot of depth to our visit. 

This is a view of the Roman Forum from inside the Colosseum. 

We worked up quite an appetite with all the exploring and learning, so we headed straight to a pizzeria for lunch. 

After enjoying our relaxing lunch, we made our way back toward the Colosseum to visit the Forum, which was our final destination for this trip to Rome.  One our way, we ran into an American couple who offered to take a family photo. 

In all honesty, by the time we reached the Forum we had all had about as much antiquity as we could handle.  The kids were clearly more interested in their 2 Euro squishy ball souvenirs that a middle eastern souvenir salesman pushed on us. 

 However, we were able to soak in just a little of this most central part of Roman history. 

However, one of my favorite parts of the entire trip is depicted in the photo to the left.  While stopping under a shaded area for a quick break, Jenna began to promptly report to her father in her most responsible, older sister voice: "Da-ad, Ethan is ruining the Roman ruins!!"  Who could dream of a better way to finish off our last day of sight seeing in Rome?!

Now here we are on the train to the airport...

and then waiting on the plane!  Traveling, especially as a family of 5, isn't always as glamorous as it may seem.  It was 9 hours of traveling for a flight less than 2 hours long, but it was worth all the hastle to experience one of Europe's greatest cities!