Ostia Antica (the archaeological site of ancient Ostia, the harbor city of Rome, 25km southwest of the modern city at the mouth of the Tiber, accessible in 35 minutes by regional train from Piramide Metro B in Rome) is the most undervisited major archaeological site in Italy, which is a genuinely useful statement because it means that one of the finest Roman archaeological cities in the world is accessible from Rome on a half-day trip without advance booking, without timed entry, and without the specific physical pressure of the Pompeii crowd. Ostia Antica receives approximately 400,000 visitors per year. Pompeii receives 3.5 million. Both are exceptional sites that document Roman urban life. Ostia is consistently more accessible, and in certain specific categories of evidence, the multi-story residential apartment buildings (insulae), the commercial architecture, the religious diversity documented by the surviving Mithraea and the Synagogue, is the superior documentary site.
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Ostia Antica: The Major Highlights
The Insulae: Roman Apartment Buildings
Ostia Antica has the finest surviving examples of the Roman insula (the multi-story apartment building that housed the majority of Rome's urban population, not the wealthy in their ground-floor domus but the working and middle classes in the upper-floor apartments of the 3-5 story buildings that dominated Roman urban fabric from the 1st century AD onward). The Caseggiato del Larario, the Casa dei Dipinti, and the Caseggiato degli Aurighi are examples where the multiple stories, the internal courtyards, the ground-floor commercial units, and the upper-floor residential spaces are preserved or reconstructable from the surviving evidence. Standing in a Ostia insula courtyard and looking up at the successive floor levels, understanding that Rome was a city of apartment dwellers, not a city of atrium houses as the theatrical productions of Roman daily life suggest, is the most specifically instructive experience of Roman social history available at any archaeological site.
Ostia Antica: tours & tickets
Compare guided tours, skip-the-line tickets and day trips for Ostia Antica.
See availability & prices →Compare tours on Viator →We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.The Thermopolium and the Theater
The Thermopolium of Via di Diana (the Roman fast-food counter, the masonry counter with embedded ceramic dolia containing food and liquid products, frescoed with images of the products available, a specific Roman commercial format of which Ostia has several examples) is the most accessible visualization of Roman street food culture anywhere in the Italian archaeological circuit. The Teatro di Ostia (the 2nd-century theater, partially restored, with summer performances in July-August, the Ostia Antica Festival uses the theater for evening concerts and theatrical performances, one of the most atmospheric summer event venues in Italy) and the Piazzale delle Corporazioni (the square of the commercial guilds, the mosaic floor insignia of the shipping companies from across the Mediterranean world, each with their city of origin and commodity depicted).
Q&A: Ostia Antica
Is Ostia Antica better than Pompeii?
"Better" is the wrong question, different in what it shows. Pompeii's specific advantage: the preservation of organic materials (food residues in the thermopolia, cloth in the fulleries, wood in some structures) that Ostia, which wasn't catastrophically buried, doesn't have. Ostia's specific advantage: the multi-story building evidence, the commercial guild documentation, the longer temporal range (Ostia was inhabited from the 4th century BC to the 6th century AD, longer than Pompeii's documented occupation), and the absence of crowds. For the visitor with time for only one site and based in Rome: Ostia is the practical choice (35 minutes by train, no advance booking required). For the visitor specifically interested in the 79 AD eruption's specific documentation: Pompeii is irreplaceable.
