Saturday - A. Day trip to Ostia Antica

10/19. Saturday..trip to Ostia Antica and St Paul's  This morning after another wonderful omelet breakfast here at our hostel, Martha and I first started out to go see the old part of the city called Trastevere. But, since the city is in the middle of demonstrations, especially around the tourist areas, we changed our minds and got on the metro and then the train to travel outside of the city and visit the old port city of Ostia Antica that like Pompeii was buried, only in sand instead of lava, and has now been excavated.

We spent several hours wandering the grounds of this, at one time, very large city. Could have stayed much longer than we did, but felt that we had seen enough and were ready to get back to the train and on to our next stop.

The papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. In Rome there are 4 churches which are considered Vatican property. Of course, St. Peter's, Santa Marie Maggiore, San Giovanni in Laterano and Saint Paul Outside the Walls. St. Paul's is the second largest roman church after the Vatican. This is the church where they have oval tile pictures around the top of their walls of all the Popes. Their are only Six empty ovals left on the walls....??? It's a beautiful church and I enjoyed seeing it again. I found out several new things about this church..one being that it was actually built over the grave of St. Peter's.

Soon we were back on the metro headed for Rome....we noticed that the metro went right pass the stop for the. Colosseum, which meant there was a possibility of a problem in that area and they were not taking any chances....back to the hostel we ate our picnic dinner on the patio as we listened to the helicopters circling the area. We started out for 6 PM Mass, but much to Martha dismay, I insisted that we turn around as their was two much commotion for me. Any way it's been an exciting night with much conversation here at the hostel about the noise outside.