Ostia Antica

I don't have a tour, but I did want to let you know that we were there about a month ago and the hands-on, wandering in and out of the ruins, all-encompassing nature of cemetetary to market to homes to political center to amphitheatre really kept my family into it without spending much time reading our book or listening to the audio tour.

You're going to love it!

Ostia is a wonderful site. You do not need a tour.
We walked thru and savored the history of what was once the world's busiest port.

We didn't take a tour. There are advantages to a tour but it's not absolutely necessary to enjoy Ostia.

I e-mailed the Ostia site & the guided tours are only for groups. I found an mp3 tour that I think I'll download for $15 onto our Ipod's & that way we'll have the opportunity to use it if we feel we need more information. Thanks for your input. The reason I was set on needing a tour is because someone had told me that without it, it's hard to know what you're looking at. I read that RS is putting together a guided mp3 tour but it won't be ready until this winter...too bad it won't help me in September!! Thanks again for your advise. Good to know that it's not necessary to spend money on a formal tour.

Agree with other posters that a tour is not necessary. We were just there recently and had no problem knowing exactly what we were seeing--sites are well marked.

If you decide not to do a guided tour, do some research and plan ahead to figure out what you want to see while there. We made the mistake of just showing up and wandering around reading the displays. Unfortunately we didn't realize how HUGE the grounds are and we ended up spending too much time on the less interesting sites, not knowing that there were much more interesting things to come. But by then we had run out of time and good weather. One tip I've heard, if you don't want to do lots of pre-planning, is to walk quickly all the way to the end of the grounds right when you arrive, taking note of what you're seeing on the way. You can then turn around and make your way back to the entrance, allowing as much time as seems appropriate along the way now that you've gotten the "lay of the land".

Been to Ostia Antica twice, both by land and by the river boat trip, and still it is hard to understand the place. What you see is the "OLD original" harbor that latter became a posh residential area. The Harbors from Claudius on, were much larger in scale, and on the north side of the Arno. But all that has not been excavated or opened up as archaeological sites. As you fly in to the main Rome airport you might see a big five sided pond. This is the port of Rome at its hight; Portus, built by Tragan. Its a whole other part of the port complex that was established and is now nearly unknown awaiting us to discover it.

I love this about ancient Italy. There is so much still lost to time.

If we set off from Rome at 1pm, would there be enough time for this sight? We are meeting somewhere at the airport in the morning but was hoping to go by noon if there are no delays.