Viewing the marble fragment of a vendor's counter displayed inside a museum, however splendid it may be, will not provoke the same emotions as looking at the same object in its original setting. Ostia Antica was a city, and the archaeological tour that wanders through the site, flanked by grass, trees and brick walls, does the job perfectly. You get the feeling the moment you enter, along the Decumano Massimo, the main street of the ancient encampment that formed the core of the city and which begins shortly beyond the entrance to the excavations. Cutting longitudinally through the rectangle of the original military fort, or 'castrum', the Decumano was the city's main street, together with the Cardo Massimo, that runs at a right angle across it. The street runs the full length of the city. Today it's a beautiful avenue, lined with trees and often with the remains of walls, which one can imagine crumbling slowly away. Two imposing buildings draw one's attention. The first is the theatre, its curved seating and stage still used during the summer by spectators and actors. Then there's the Capitol, with the forum stretching before it.

A beautiful mouth.
The side and rear brick walls of the temple, stripped of all ornament, stand as an immense building at the top of a grand stairway, a kind of hymn to austerity, seen as it is without the priceless statues and decorative elements with which it was once adorned. Today, however, it stands in fascinating counterpoise to the adjoining forum, a place of poetry composed of a grassy space surrounded by various archaeological remains. The name Ostia comes from 'ostium', meaning 'mouth', as in the mouth of the river. It was the first of many Roman colonies to begin life as military fort built to control a strategic site, in this case the river Tiber, and which then went on to become a city. Between 338 BC, traditionally given as the year in which it was founded, and the middle of the third century BC, when Rome lost its role as capital of the empire, the port city was home to thousands of people of different nationalities. Wealthy traders and shipbuilders, simple porters and sailors, thronged its streets and buildings daily. The best way to visit the site is to lose yourself among its many paths and streets, and go inside the buildings with a guide who can give you an idea of what went on in day-to-day life.