When in Rome...

This week we took our group on their first Mediterranean excursion, to Rome. The van picked us up at 5:30 a.m. -- a popular time for college students -- zipped through streets with no traffic and breezed through check-in and security at a mostly empty airport. The flight to Rome from Malta was less than an hour and a half.

I had booked a van service to pick us up at the airport and deliver us to our first stop, Ostia Antica. These are the ruins of a Roman city which, 2,000 years ago, was located at the mouth (ostium) of the River Tiber. It was first a naval base, protecting Rome from invasion by sea.

However, once Rome controlled the entire Mediterranean, there was no longer an invasion threat. Instead, there was a great need for grain to feed the swelling population of the city. Bread and circuses kept the emporers in power. Ostia was the port where grain was imported to supply the bread.

At it's peak, Ostia was a city of more than 100,000 people -- primarily merchants, traders, and longshoremen. But by the time Rome fell, it wasn't even important enough to be sacked by the invading Goths and Vandals. Abandoned, the Tiber covered it in silt during floods. Thus, the foundations were well preserved.

While only about 3/5ths of Ostia have been excavated, it is a huge, sprawling site that gives a very vivid impression of what daily life must have been like for common Romans.

The plan was to take the train and other mass transit from Ostia into the city of Rome and our hotel. I knew this was going to be the hardest part of the trip, because we hadn't been able to scout Ostia and see just how to get there. It turned out to be every bit as stressful as I had imagined.

I was also relying on Google Maps for up-to-the-minute information on train and bus schedules, and for some reason, I couldn't get data on my phone. A wrong turn meant we walked three times as far as necessary to reach the rail station. The rail station was unmanned, so I had to deal with a ticket machine that wouldn't take credit cards. We had to get 14 people all on a train together, and off again. The rail station and the metro station we needed are in the same place, but had different names, etc.

We wound up walking a very long way across central Rome instead of taking the bus, as planned. But we eventually reached our hotel.

In the evening, we visited the Pantheon and the Four Rivers Fountain, plus some churches and other sites in the surrounding area. Then we enjoyed a group meal at a local restaurant. It was a long day of walking, and we were ready for a good night's rest.