Ostia, 6/27/04
The title of this entry presumes that I'm going to Pompeii, and in that context makes sense. However, since it seems fairly unlikely that I'm actually going to make it to Pompeii, for assorted reasons involving the amount of pain involved in the walk through Ostia, the general suckfulness of Italian trains, and me being a dumbass and not getting a ticket back in the day a ways.
Speaking of dumbasses, there are smart people in this world, and there are stupid people. There are people who retreat from the sun during the extreme heat of the day, and there are people who ignore the heat and just keep going. Consequently, there are people who get totally fried and overheated, and people who don't. Given what you've just heard me say about the train ticket thing, which do you think I am?
Yup. I walked Ostia in the sun. But that's getting a bit ahead of myself. I should start by mentioning that I essentially started today's journey at the Porta Ostiense in the old Aurelian Wall. It's all still standing, and looks really cool, as you might expect. There are also two things of interest nearby. One is the Pyramid of Gaius Cestinus, which, well, looks like an Egyptian pyramid, probably because it was supposed to. Also, there's the Piramide metro station, from which you can take a train to Ostia and some other places that are essentially unimportant by comparison, but which people seem to want to go to anyway.
Or at least there's a theory about taking trains to Ostia from there. There are maps on the wall saying you can, and signs. Lots of people got on the train expecting to actually go somewhere. These same people were fairly disappointed when the cops waved everyone off the train to another train. Since this other train didn't leave for like half an hour or an hour, I was more annoyed than disappointed. Combine that with how the maid service woke me up at 8:30 am (what the hell maid service comes at 8:30 on SUNDAY, for Chrissakes?), plus the basically record number of hot sweaty people shoved like cattle into this train, I was not having an especially good day.
But eventually I got to Ostia. That was sort of a near thing, actually, since the Italians pretty much don't believe in signposting their train stations for some screwy reason. Or rather, there was a sign, but it so small I could barely read it, and it was on the other side anyway. But knowing this, I counted stops, and jumped at the right one. Yay me. However, there's not really a good sign leading one to the ruins, either, so I got to wander a bit until I found them. Since Ostia's not exactly Manhattan, this wasn't too hard, but still. I got there, though, plus got to see some random castle on the way.
And then, well, I walked a lot. Because, for those of you who have absolutely no idea what the hell I'm talking about, Ostia was Rome's port back in the day, since Rome's sort of up the river a ways and Ostia's on the coast. Or was on the coast back in the day, since the shoreline sort of got up and left a while back. At any rate, there's a great big ruined city there to explore. Not quite Pompeii, but still pretty nice.
So, like I said, I walked. Mostly I walked pretty much aimlessly, because the one map I had pretty much sucked the good suck. In fact, it super-sized the good suck, and tossed in a large drink and some fries for kicks. I may have had worse maps in my life, but I can't conveniently remember any. Even Rick Steves doesn't make maps this bad (probably why there's no Ostia map in his book. Hrm). I visited a lot of random buildings, most of which were totally meaningless to me at the time, and since they're likely to be even more meaningless to you, I'll just skip the where I went portion of the commentary, and blather about other random stuff.
There were an awful lot of mosaics. More than I would have expected, in fact, and all over the place. All the shops, offices, houses, whatever, all had either mosaics, very nice colored marble floors/walls, or both. In fact, there was a surprising amount of marble, too - many many columns of various sorts and uses all over the place, mostly marble but with some brick ones too. Lots of the marble was colored, as well, which was pretty much it for color since only two or three mosaics had color - most were black and white. Since most of the Roman mosaics I had seen previously were in color, that was interesting. The Ostia mosaics are from all periods of the Empire, as well, and since I know colored mosaics came into fashion in the 2nd century or so, colored mosaics must have been even more expensive than I thought they were, or Ostians had odd tastes. In any case, lots of black and white mosaics, which actually sort of sucked. Ah well. The colored marble, on the other hand, was awesome, and I'm going to remember it for the palace I'll build when I'm world dictator.
Lots of brick, too. In fact, most things were brick, with a stone door frame or floor, and for a few of the buildings a marble facade. Can't really blame them, since marble's not exactly the cheapest building material in the world.
Lots of baths. I think I was in something like five public ones and a couple of private ones. I knew the Romans liked bathing, but sheesh. Didn't think Ostia could even support that many baths. It's not THAT big.
On the other hand, not so hefty in the temple department. Mithras got a temple, which I didn't get to see because it was fenced off; the Christians got a basilica; the Jews got a synogogue; Augustus gets a temple; and Magna Mater gets a pretty big complex out back with a great big courtyard with three different shrines at the corners. It's a lot of temples, but since they were all pretty small and the baths were all pretty big... *shrug*
The roads were a pain in the ass to walk on. I assume the stones are all Roman originals, except that they've all had time to move around, so you have to watch your footing the whole time, which is a lot of fun.
I went down into this tunnel near the Forum at one point. I have no idea what it was for, but I went in anyway and poked around, gazing up at the feet of some of the really annoying tours from time to time.
Speaking of tours and tourists, it's sort of funny. They all get in your way all the time - when you want to take a picture and when you want to read some sign somewhere in particular, and you think something like "Stupid American tourists!" before remembering that, by the way, you too are an American tourist. Stupid, well, sometimes. Stupid in the sunburn sense, certainly. Stupid in the sense of not knowing a damn thing about where they were, not so much. And there was a lot of that, actually. Always women, too. Not sure what's up with that, but hey. In particular, there was one woman who followed her husband/boyfriend around, listening to him talk about the place, and he pretty much knew what he was saying, whereupon she would attempt to contradict him and make some wildly inaccurate guess, to which he would just shrug and keep going. The other fun one was this woman saying: "Oh, they put a well smack in the middle of the street. But what happened if their chariots got going too fast?" Those of us with some knowledge of how Rome worked will realize that the chances of a chariot ever seeing Ostia were pretty remote, and those of us with some knowledge of how horse-driven carts work, which is what Ostia WOULD have seen, will realize that the chances of them speeding over those particular roads fast enough to crash into that well are just about as remote.
This is why there will be enforced sterilization of stupid and ignorant people when I become ruler of the world.
So, anyway, I got lost for a while more, at one point emerging out of the ruins to some very modern buildings housing the cafe and bookshop. Very surreal, let me tell you. Felt sort of like that scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when they're in the sewers with the rats, and they come out of the manhole in the middle of a bunch of people sitting around drinking coffee. Same sort of thing - hot and sweaty me, tired after having treked the ruins of ancient Rome, comes out of this Roman street to find a bunch of people sitting in the shade drinking water and such. Screwy. Fortunately, there was a particularly handy fountain near the theater, from which I hooked myself up with some water. Too, at various points I stopped in the shady ruins of some dead Roman dude's house to hang out and have a nice refreshing Coke. Yay Coke.
And all of that done, and with one whole side of my neck pretty much bright bright red, I decided that that was probably enough for one day. Almost went to go see the Forum some more, but no. I have two more days. One of those will be spent in Rome. What I'll do with the other, I have no idea. Rome, probably. Maybe go see Hadrian's villa in Tivoli, but probably Rome. Lots to do in Rome, there is.
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Rome, 6/28/04
And on the 5th day, Dwip rested. Dwip didn't originally start out to rest, but that's what Dwip did anyway. There are a number of reasons for this. The first is that nothing but the Vatican Museum on my to see list was open. So I actually went there, but since everyone else in Rome realized the hours as well, the line was literally half a mile long, and I decided that, no, I really didn't want to wait in that. Especially because it's pretty much one of those days. The sort of day where you wake up nice and cool in the morning, because you're indoors with the fan going, and then you walk outside and within 3 minutes flat your shirt is soaked through, sweat is running off you in rivers, and you're thinking "On second thought, maybe not." So that was pretty much that. I'd LIKE to go hang out in the Forum or something, but not if I'm going to die of heat stroke before I get there. So the moral of the story here, pretty much, is go in the winter when you won't fry to death.
And on a pretty much non-travel related note, I'm occupying my nights with pretty much two things: My hella cool CC2 rendition of the biggest and baddest castle in the Castle Guide, which is essentially done and which leaves me with a whole one castle to go out of the four in that book; and my current Medieval: Total War game, which features me as the Italians, in Early, on Hard. Said game has seen a number of things, including:
Not one but two major naval wars, against the Sicilians and the French, for domination of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
Noticing the Danes not taking Sweeden, so sending some random guys up to do so, whereupon the Danes attack ME, forcing me to retaliate, which ends in me getting excommunicated.
Me not being up into excommunication, and so assassinating the Pope. Woot.
The French building gargantuan armies of nothing but royal knights and hobilars. Even Khan doesn't use that many horses. Unfortunately for the French, Italian Infantry > Hobilars. Italian Infantry also > Peasants, which is pretty much what everyone else but me and the French are using in 1198. Strange game like that.
Sicily essentially running rampant on Byzantium, who fled into the wilds of Novgorod, then ran over Poland before being smashed by the HRE, French, and Novgorod, the last of whom is camped out in the east with a LOT of guys.
The Spanish NOT running over the Egyptians. In fact, the Egyptians are doing really good. That in and of itself is pretty screwy, not to mention the Turks are kind of getting rocked.
Me and the French fighting a decades-long war, with the Pope pretty much saying "Yeah guys, go on, have fun. No worries about me."
So I've basically run over the greater portion of the HRE, because, well, when does the HRE ever do good? Too, I'm winning that war with France, after a fashion. Fought Sicily to a draw. Doing pretty good, thinking. We'll see how 1204 treats me.
And then last night I got one of those turns. One of those turns where your generalship is just so good, Caesar, Alexander the Great, and Napoleon all rolled into one couldn't beat you. The French King dies in a hail of arrow fire. His two biggest, baddest armies go up against two of your armies, and in a seriously hardcore fight, you basically crush his entire side, and you're on the verge on winning, and...the game crashes. Argh. To quote the two Great Ones: Bogus. Heinous. Most totally non-triumphant.
On the other hand, I just had some really good ideas for redoing my Thurii map. This could be good.
Addendum:
So on replay of the crashed battles, I didn't off his king, but I still routed that army. In the other battle, well, that was pretty titanic. 2000 of my guys against 1500 or so of his, and a lot of his were cav. We're calling it the Battle of Lake France, for lack of a better idea, and because it was fought at this lake in Ile de France. And pretty much a whole lot of his guys ran over to my guys, and we sat in this big shield wall for a while, while I used my superiority in numbers and quality, combined with massed archer fire, to rip him to shreds. And this pretty much worked, and he lost a lot of guys, including three of his best generals, who he didn't ransom. Ouch.
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Rome, 6/29/04
It was another home by 3 day here in Rome, because it was about like this: My metro ticket, little did I know, was a 3 day pass, not a 7 day pass, and it ran out. Fortunately, an all-day pass costs 4 euros, and all I had was 10 euros, and the machine gives maximum change of 4 euros. So of course it won't rip me off, being a nice machine. And of course I can't protest to it that no, really, I WANT to be ripped off, please take my 2 euros, I insist. So I ended up walking where I wanted to go. And walking in Rome is like walking through a sauna. Add in the fact that most of Rome is a polluted, traffic-ridden mess, and the walking part was not so fun. The bit where I walked into my hotel room, turned on the fan, got rid of some clothing, and just sat and panted for a while wasn't so fun either, but that's better now.
So anyway, I went walking. First stop was Termini Station, where in that handy little grocery store in the lower level, I picked up some nice, refreshing Coke for later. Walking by McDonald's, I noticed there was a sign on those random old-looking walls I kept noticing. Yes, as it turns out, there's a bit of the Servian Wall in the middle of the seating area in the lower Termini Station McDonald's (as opposed to the upper one, or the one right outside - no problem finding a McDonald's around here).
That having been chortled at, I walked over across the street to the National Museum of Rome, which is one of those sorts of places that's pretty much THE final authority on where to see Roman sculpture, along with the Capitoline museums. So I checked out the statues for a while, many of which I'd seen pictures of before, or copies. Augustus as Pontifex Maximus, Caracalla, and that other guy who I'm not quite remembering just now. You know. That one guy, who did all that stuff. Him. I also jumped in on the guided tour of the second level, which was essentially them saying "Yeah, Roman frescoes and mosaics were pretty badass, weren't they?" and us agreeing a lot. And while I've never been much of a fresco person, the mosaics really WERE that good. Some of them, in fact, were of very fine detail, using 2 millimeter bits of stone to create VERY lifelike portraits and such. Some of the very best mosaic work I've seen yet, which considering the location isn't TOO surprising. There was also a coin exhibit, but I decided to skip it, because for some unknown reason coin exhibits bore me to tears.
So I decided to go hang out in the Forum and see some more stuff down there instead. Which involves a trip down the Via Cavour. It mostly sucked, except for two things: The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which is really big and cool-looking, and the assorted graffiti along the street, from hammer and sickles to "Stop War! Kill Bush!" scrawlings, to my favorite, "Stop Wars" made to look like the Star Wars logo. Hee.
In any case, the Via Cavour eventually dumps you out next to the Forum (in the midst of one of the Imperial ones, I might note), whereupon I walked the Forum to the sound of somebody playing a very eerie version of Hey Jude on a wood flute. I'm not sure why I think that's so appropriate, but it is. So I hung out, listened to that for a while, got my picture taken, bought myself a paperweight featuring Wolfie and the Twins (tried for a coffee mug, but alas there were none to be had), and drank the forementioned refreshing Coke. Walking out, I happened to pass some random American tourists by the Arch of Titus going "Well, I think that's the Arch of Septimus Severus. Or maybe Marcus Aurelius. Or maybe Constantine." Whereupon, being who I am, I'm like "Titus. Septimus Severus is over there. Constantine's over by the Colosseum." I got rather profusely thanked for my efforts, and had I stuck around probably would have had an excellent chance to educate the masses, but I kept going.
Curious to see how much of the Circus Maximus was still around, I walked down there, and found that the answer is...not much. Almost nothing, in fact, though the depression is still there, and you can still tell where everything used to be. It's a big open park now, though not many people were there in the heat of the day. There was, however, a wedding photography shoot going, using the Palatine as a backdrop. Good choice, I think, though a slightly more tranquil spot would have been my next stop, the Forum Boarium. Not much there, except for a couple of small temples, such as my favorite little one to Vesta.
And at that point, having braved the sauna for long enough, I went home. Back past the Circus Maximus. Back by the Colosseum. Back by the Forum. Back up the Via Cavour. Back into Termini for another store run. And then to my hotel. And here we are. And tomorrow I'll be for Michigan. So that's Europe. It's been fun, but I'm just as glad it's over now.
Final picture total: 1,705. 505 London (246 (!) British Museum), 78 Stonehenge/Bath, 77 Oxford, 25 Winchester, 7 Norwich, 17 Canterbury, 65 York, 26 Carlisle, 76 Hadrian's Wall, 18 Fishbourne/Chichester, 3 Hampton Court, 25 Brighton, 11 St. Albans, 86 Brussels, 122 Paris, 45 Stockholm, 54 Venice, 65 Ravenna, 246 Rome, 153 Ostia.
Happiness is a warm camera.
Posted by Dwip at June 30, 2004 10:44 AM