Ostia Antica accomodation

My experience with Ostia Antice is that it is a big park and there were no restaurants or the appearance of any accommodations in the immediate area when we visited. However, there may be something within a few walking blocks so my response is very limited. However, the beach town of Anitica a little further south might be more interesting.

A great site to visit but why the interest in staying in this area?

We will be in Rome in late February and--weather permitting--plan on taking the train from Termini station to Ostia Antica station to visit for a couple hours. Will pack a lunch, water, much like we did at Pompei in early March 2015. Something about having a picnic among ruins over 2000 years old, near remnants of ancient cafes that actually served food, that is intoxicating. Certainly, we are reverent about our surroundings, cleaning up afterwards all traces of our being there.

There are lots of good restaurants just outside the archeological park, go past the tower (walking away from the train station).

Booking.com shows quite a number of hotels and small lodgings in the area. Click on the small map on the left side of the screen for a map view. There are many similar-looking light-blue vehicle icons on the map. The largest of those (labeled "Ostia Antica") seems to represent the train station, the others being bus stops.

You might also check venere.com, but booking.com seems to have more options.

After finding a place that sounds good, it's worth trying to locate its own website to see whether you can get a better deal.

Quite a number of places are listed as sold out, but I suspect they might just not be open in January, or perhaps they haven't yet assigned that inventory to the booking sites.

Jay, I'm always surprised that eating is allowed at any of the archeological sites in Italy (outside of designated cafes/cafeterias). For instance, nothing but plain water is allowed into the cliff houses at Mesa Verde - not nearly as old as Pompei or Ostia Antica - because even little crumbs or spills from flavored/sugared drinks draw rodents and other wildlife which cause a lot of damage. I'm not being critical of your picnic at all but I just find it curious.

There is a cafeteria-style eating establishment at Ostia Antica. It's a good place to get out of the heat if you visit during hot weather.

I highly recommend B&B Ostia Antica, family run, reasonably priced, great service. For restaurant recommendations, we had a wonderful meal at il Monumento in Ostia. My husband and sister still talk about the chicken cattchettore after 4 years.

Kathy--

While I certainly understand your position, these sites have survived over 2000 years of God-knows-what. Now, we're not going to play the role of the ugly American and saunter in there with McDonald's and plop down in the middle of a crowd at some focal point, turn on a boombox and start a family dinner. If allowable, we'd be in the off-season, no doubt on a less-traveled day (like we did at Pompei), and would find an out-of-the-way bench or stone to quietly eat our panini, drink our water, and contemplate. And then not leave a footprint as far as garbage. I think that's being respectful.

Jay, I absolutely did not imply that you intended to be disrespectful, nor to I believe you would try to circumvent any rules (there aren't any against munching among the stones as long as you don't sit on them, and I know you wouldn't! ). I just find it interesting that it's allowed as animal damage is one of the reasons, say, feeding the birds - and drawing them in - is illegal in San Marco, Venice.

Many ancient ruins have survived for as long as they have is because they were buried for most of that time. Once exposed to elements - destablising quakes, heavy rain, pollution, sun, plant growth, animal/insect damage (pigeon dropping are especially harmful), human wear-and-tear, etc. - they immediately start to deteriorate. It's an issue with most very old and fragile archeological sites, and Pompeii's deterioration/neglect was such a few years ago that UNESCO threatened to pull it from the World Heritage protection list unless immediate and extensive action was taken.

I know you didn't think I was disrespectful, Kathy, but it's something people think about when visiting these sites.

When we were at Pompei a year ago last March, it was pretty much clean of garbage but not pristine because there were roaming dogs--all friendly and most quite portly from being fed by picnickers I would imagine--and there also were a lot of bold pigeons that would come right up to you. We loved it because it wasn't antiseptic by any means, the real McCoy, they would say.

We did also hear that UNESCO or the Italians (or both) had long since run out of funds to do further excavation for the time being, saying that there was as much as 80% of the ruins still uncovered, which is mind-boggling.

Whew; glad that you understood. Jay. :O)

Yep, the stray dogs have been a long-standing problem for them. They really don't want them there, and had launched an adoption effort to get rid of them sometime back but I don't know if it's still active.

Besides lack of funds, they may have decided not to excavate ALL of the ruins because of the deterioration issue: it's not just $$ to dig them out but $$ for constant attention once exposed. To protect them from the elements, they don't excavate all of the sites they know about in some of our U.S. National Parks/Monuments.

Anyway, enjoy your picnic!

We just stayed at the Ostia Antica Suite B&B and it was delightful. The owner was wonderful about communicating via email to answer all questions. We arrived late on Friday night (11pm) and he guided us to the next town, Lago de Ostia where we were able to find dinner at a late hour. The room was cheap-85 euros maybe less? The room was clean and very comfortable. And the next morning we had our included breakfast, pastries and pizza! And great coffee and he even let us taste his mussels. 15 minutes from the airport and 5 minutes from the wonderful park.

We just got back from a trip to France and Spain. I had good luck with VRBO and Homeaway. I like these (Homeaway actually owns VRBO) because you can go directly through the owner. They have reviews that can help with decision making.

FYI, the nearby town is not "Anitica" but Ostia Lido (or Lido di Ostia). It's a popular summer retreat for Romans, as it's right on the sea. It has more of a blue collar vibe (imho) than some of the other resort towns in Italy.