We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
I'm not a big fan of visiting Rome, but I've been there a few times and have walked all around and seen all the required sights. Got stuck there one time too (long story). Did enjoy this book: Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome.
One cool thing about Rome is that you can hop on a quick train south to Ostia Antica which is the most intact ancient Roman city. Far more preserved than Pompeii, which is all rubble except for a few ancient street food vendors and the porn pictures in the ancient whorehouses.
One thing Pompeii and Ostia have in common is that they were both seaports. Ostia (now Ostia Antica - Ostia is nearby, a beach town) was the Port of Rome in olden times, now silted up as is Pompeii.
Ostia Antica is huge - can't see it all in one day but a few hours with a nice lunch and beer in their cafeteria is enough to get the gist of it. Except for our technology, their lives were not too different from ours. Heck, they even had apartment buildings. We live in a Roman civilization.
Western medieval times were a crazy step "backwards" in civilization. A degeneracy, you could say, or a throwback. That's why those medieval times capture the imagination. I guess Hadrian's Wall, and Regensberg, were Rome's high water marks before the barbarians took over again. Ancient Rome is familiar, kinda boring to me. Medieval Europe is weird.
Pic from of MAGA Caffeteria from my urban hike around Ostia outside Rome.
"Ostia" is the mouth, the area of the old Roman port. About 25 minutes from the airport, 20 by ambulance.
No foreigners visit Ostia. It's a Roman middle-class and working-class suburb south of Rome on one of the commuter trains. Its 3 miles of beach on the Med (The Lido) attract less-wealthy Romans in summer for beach getaways. It has a half-mile of spartan hotels, one of which I stayed in (Hotel Bellavista) for 5 days while Mrs. BD was in Ospidale Grassi about a 30-minute walk from my hotel. No fluffy towels.
This was an accidental visit by this accidental tourist. (Mrs. BD fainted on the plane to Rome - face plant - and fractured some facial bones. Dangerous to her eye, and she looked by post-car crash.) While stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues, I did spend one day hiking Ostia and getting lost and hiking the beach with my trousers rolled up like T S Eliot, took the train to Rome to urban hike one day, took train to Ostia Antica (do not miss that visit when near Rome) and had a wonderful day there until it closed.
So before I post some photos of Ostia Antica later (a truly magnificent ruin of a Roman port city, just 3 train stops from Ostia, an hour from Rome) I thought I'd post some fun observations about some aspects of the real, non-tourist Italy. Remember, Rome is sort-of on the edge of northern and southern Italy, and a blend of both cultures but more southern than northern. I've been to Rome several times. Once is enuf in my view. Fun stuff below the fold (BTW, Mrs. BD is just fine now)
That means Situation Abnormal All F-ed Up. Things generally go OK for us. When I got home, learned my office phone had been out for 12 days. Not good. And more.
If any readers care, when I get reorganized here I will post some photos from my reconstituted HQ and after a semi-catastrophic (4 days in Italian government hospital for Mrs. BD, but then 6 days buzzing all around the environs of southern Tuscany with our great VW were pretty fun using an elegant villa in the countryside outside Montepulciano as our base). Good food, still lost 5 lbs which I did not need to lose.
It's a long story, but, in brief, due to the accidental stay in the hospital in Ostia, we made a wonderful new friend of a lovely young Slovenian gal who speaks 8 languages fluently, I got to spend 5 hours wandering around Ostia Antiqua, spent a day on the Lido in Ostia, and hopped the train to spend a day urban-hiking Rome which reminded me of how much I dislike that city. I can say that 5 days in an ordinary Italian suburb, no tourists, was a cultural education than few if any Americans could get. I was an alien.
Also learned that I need to update my Civil War-era iphone.
On your first visit, you have to stop by all of the main tourist destinations and see double late at night on the Spanish Steps. Vatican, all that. It's required. Generally-speaking, I do not think much of Rome itself as a city to visit, but I feel the same way about Venice so ignore me if you want to.
However, the best thing to do in Rome is to take a tour of Ostia - Ostia Antica. It far surpasses Herculaneum and Pompeii as a preserved Roman urban site. It's the old port of Rome, the ancient harbor which silted up but was never destroyed. A stroll around there will make you realize that the Romans lived quite similarly to the way Americans live today.
Central heat, fast food, running water, sanitary toilets, shopping areas, multi-story apartment buildings, whorehouses, gambling dens, paved streets, warehouses, factories, etc. They did not wear togas, either - except the senators and their ilk. They did not have tomatoes.
Our lad is now based in Rome for the rest of the summer. He goes everywhere and tries to see everything. He sends these photos of Ostia Antica, aka "The Better Pompeii." It means "The Old Port," just outside of Rome. 100,000 people once lived there.
Whenever I consider the Romans, I realize that, although we tend to think of ourselves as living in a Judeo-Christian culture, we really live in a Roman culture with a little Judeo-Christian icing on top.
Having been to Pompeii, I would say that, judging from the photos, Ostia Antica is the far-superior Roman site. A passer-by was kind enough to take this snap of himself at an old fast-food counter (Pompeii was full of those too):
A reader suggested that I stop by Lepcis Magna (aka Leptis Magna, aka Neapolis) while visiting North Africa.
Not a bad idea, but I have seen tons of Roman ruins from England to Pompeii to North Africa, and they're all about the same: an arena, a forum, a bath, a few monuments and lots of columns, etc. The ones in Carthage were cool.
I prefer seeing Greek things, and it seems like it would be a shame to go through life without seeing ancient Egyptian things in situ.
Where I want to poke around, from the Romans, is Ostia.
A reader suggested that I stop by