The Chronicles of Life and Death

Tuesday April 4, 2006

Today we had a chance to get out of Rome a little bit by bus. Our first stop was to an ancient Roman city named Ostia. It was absolutely amazing! It was so huge. It really was like a city, not just a tiny part of a city.

We walked all around, up and down. Inside we saw the market place with mosaics on the ground and the public lavatories where we stopped for pics of course! Once we left there we went to the modern day city of Ostia which is next to the sea. Ostia actually means mouth or something- referring to the mouth of the ocean. See the original Ostia was named that because it was actually right next to the sea, but did ya know that the Mediterranean has moved like 4 kilometers since then? Interesting stuff! We had a chance to grab lunch at the coast and then off to the beach where we rolled up our pants and dipped our feet into the Mediterranean. It was quite beautiful! It reminded me a lot of Oceanside actually. Next we headed to an Etruscan site of burials. It was called Cerveteri. It was like a huge city of tombs. Ok it sounds more morbid than it was… well maybe. : ) Hey, I’m sure Laura would appreciate it. Yay! Here we actually got to walk into them. They looked like big mounds from the outside.

You would walk down into the tombs and there was usually a few rooms inside. There wasn’t anything in them though because its all been removed and put in museums elsewhere. It was so peaceful there as well. On the way back the area reminded me of the Nappa Valley in California- very beautiful! Sadly we had to leave sometime. So we headed back to our hotel. We had time to relax a little before heading to dinner. It wasn’t great, but hey its included in our price so I eat it. Afterwards we headed out to get some ice cream. I know- I bet you were wondering- What? No morning ice cream break?? Hehehe. Yeah, so I had to make do with only one today. It was a mix of cream and chocolate. Yum, but then again its all yum really! Then we headed out to fine some wine for one of the girls- today is her 21st birthday and she wanted a nice glass of wine to celebrate. We had great fun. I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful it feels to sit and relax outside of a little café in ROME. : P Hehehe! Well, that’s all for now. I know today was a short entry, but hey it just leaves me more to tell you all in person right? Love you guys! Ciao!