Ostia Antica

Why go

Ostia Antica is the excavated ancient city of Ostia, which Rome's official tourism site describes as a fortified colony founded in the late fifth or early fourth century BC that grew as a trading and supply port with the harbours of Claudius and Trajan and declined from the middle of the third century as the coast moved away. Italy's national tourism site gives the traditional founding by King Ancus Marcius around 620 BC instead; the two sources date the foundation differently. The national site lists the theatre, baths, the forum and houses with mosaics and frescoes among the remains, and the Museo Ostiense in the Casone del Sale, which it says reopened in July 2024. Rome's tourism office lists the excavations under the Parco archeologico di Ostia antica, whose locations also include a site in Fiumicino, and Italy's national tourism site groups the archaeological area with the Imperial Ports of Claudius and Trajan and the Necropolis of Porto on Isola Sacra; this record is the excavated city only. The park's own website could not be opened for this record, so its entry rules are not given here.