Ostia Antica, the port of Imperial Rome. November 2016.
Of fellow travelers, abandoned cities, and dictators.
On a crisp autumn morning I caught the train to Ostia Antica, the port city of Rome nearly 2000 years ago. Only a few people got off the mostly empty train and just two of us started the walk toward the site. SL, came up and introduced herself to me. Great travel memories are made of meeting random, kind people. SL knew a lot about Ostia, Rome -- seemingly everything else compared to me. Not only was she a doctor, but she was currently living in Penang, one of my favorite food cities on the planet. Anyone who is smart, lives in Penang, and did a lot of research and planning for a trip is the kind of person I would like to tag along with!! Luckily, she had booked a tour of the frescoes of Antica and I was able to glom onto her reservation. My visit exceeded all expectations and SL was not only knowledgeable, but also a nice companion for the day. The frescoes inside the restored villas and the mosaics of the public baths were amazing - far better than what I had seen in Rome itself.
Ostia's fortunes rose and fell with Rome. It grew from a small port city into a thriving metropolis that was rebuilt several times. It was so wealthy that it was frequently raided by pirates. Over time, it morphed into a retreat for rich Romans and became less of a bustling port city. After the fall of the Roman Empire, it was abandoned. Unlike Pompeii, which was buried in an instant, Ostia slowly sank into the earth. She was plundered for her cut stones to build the next incarnation of Rome. The Tiber silted up and Ostia eventually was located about 3 kilometers from the sea totally abandoned.
Abandoned cities always fascinate me. Ostia "died" over the course of a century. It means there would have been people who actually observed its last days. I wonder what the last residents thought as they left? And what of today's cities? Will Jakarta be abandoned due to sea level rise? What about the remains of downtown Detroit? In a thousand years will these places be "Ostia Antica" for future tourists? We live in an age where people believe history has ended, yet a flu bug with a very low mortality rate has stunned and crippled the world. Things still change in a historic heartbeat. Cities known to us will vanish and new cities will rise to prominence. Nothing really changes. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
"The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with ....Mussolini" Much of the glory that was ancient Rome that has been restored for our modern viewing pleasure was brought to us by Benito Mussolini. The man was obsessed with Italy's imperial past. He was responsible for much of the excavation of current Ostia Antica (by the way, only about 1/3 of the city has been unearthed). As World War II becomes more history than part of current life will Mussolini be remembered as the great preserver of ancient Rome more than as a fascist dictator? What deeds make people remembered in the long run? I don't think we can ever know.