Ostia Antica

School children wearing toga-style tunics sit on the stone tiers of the preserved semi-circular Roman theater while two students perform on the central stage floor. The venue once seated 4,000 spectators for daytime theatrical performances and public events.

Rick Steves and a local guide stand at a marble counter inside an ancient Roman thermopolium, or neighborhood fast-food diner. They examine the counter setup, display shelves, and a painted wall mural menu depicting food, drink, and musical entertainment.

The camera pans across the extensive brick ruins and stone paved avenues of Ostia Antica, Rome's ancient port city. Visitors walk among preserved apartment complexes, storehouses, and tree-lined plazas that once served 60,000 residents.

Rick and his guide walk through a preserved communal Roman restroom featuring stone bench seating with keyhole cutouts over a continuous drainage trench. The guide explains how running water continuously flushed the channel beneath the seats in ancient times.

Overhead views reveal detailed black-and-white floor mosaics depicting Neptune driving four sea horses through the ocean alongside dolphins and sea monsters. The artwork decorated the floor of a large pool in the ancient public bathhouse.