Thursday 13th April

It was a driving and shopping day today. I have long been keen to visit the ancient Roman port of Ostia (of which more tomorrow) and so we were heading towards a campsite in the vicinity.

But first a top up at a supermarket was called for. The first one identified had no parking for motorhomes, but then we spotted that there was a LIDL in Ostia! Unfortunately it turned out that firstly Ostia has fiendishly complicated one way system, of which SatNav seemed mostly unaware, and secondly, being a busy Italian town, all the roads had cars parked on both sides of already narrow streets making driving Basil difficult.

After several circuits of the one way system and one ten point turn we found our favourite supermarket and better still there was somewhere to park Basil.

Shopping done we headed for the campsite I had chosen, Camper Roma Capital. The ACSI rate was €23, but they wanted to charge an additional €6 per person for environmental and tourist tax, with an extra €5 a day for wifi. Sarah and I had a discussion and decided €35 a night plus was too much out of season and I told reception we were not staying. As I did this a Scottish man, who was standing by reception, told me I had had a lucky escape as the campsite was “dreadful”. He had intended to stay for several days but was leaving after one.

The ever useful Park4Night app informed us that there was a popular small site just a few hundred metres away and so off we headed. Boho Garden (€25 41.7449415, 12.3198916) turned out to be a very small “Eco” campsite with a very basic, but laid back feel. We were met by the very friendly owner, Sebastian, and a young Austrian women (Catrina, I think) who was staying there and working at the campsite.

It turned out that Catrina had a six month old puppy called Mila which she had just rescued from Greece. Skye and Mila hit it off straight away and since we were the only campers, they raced around the campsite at high speed until they got tired and then collapsed into a wriggling heap of play fighting. Skye was a puppy again!

Friday 14th April

Skye and Mila started where they left off the night before while Catrina gave me some tips for Sicily, which she had visited recently.

We parted Skye from her new friend and set off for Ostia Antica. Having parked Basil nearby we entered the archeological site. Dogs are allowed in most Italian archeological sites and Ostia was no exception.

Ostia was Rome’s main port from about 50 AD until the Roman Empire’s collapse. In antiquity it was built next to the sea and adjacent to the River Tiber. The sea is now 4km away and the Tiber has added a big meander and now only touches the site in one place.

Sarah and I were both extremely impressed. Many of the buildings date from the first century AD including some of the earliest brick buildings the Romans constructed. There is a theatre, temples, mosaics, baths, shops, bars, houses, commercial buildings and even tenement blocks, that originally would have been four stories high.

Perhaps the most impressive construction was the Capitol building in the Forum. It is a brick structure, still 17 metres (56 feet) high and it originally was 20 metres plus. The brick is now exposed but when built it would have been entirely covered in marble. The Capitol was a temple to the three Roman gods of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.

In conclusion I would thoroughly recommend Ostia Antica, possibly even as an alternative to Pompeii. It is certainly in same league as the site near Naples and one big bonus is that it is considerably less crowded.

We had originally intended to stay on the car park on which we had plonked Basil but there were no other motorhomes present and being in the centre of a big town, on our own, overnight, did not seem sensible so we moved just a few miles to Camping Internazionale de Castelfusano (€23 ACSI plus €4 tourist tax. 41.705509, 12.339372). The campsite is fairly empty and a little basic, but it is only 50 metres from a public beach on which Skye is officially allowed until the end of this month.