On Friday we visited Ostia Antica, which are the ruins of Rome's old port city.
The ruins of Ostia Antica suggest that the people there LOVED taking baths. The city had at least three extensive bath complexes, and many of the floors in the bath houses are hollow to allow hot air to pass beneath to heat the caldariums.
In some of the surviving structures, you can still see the clay ducts that carried hot air through the walls to heat the space even more.
Currently the only inhabitants of Ostia Antica are the homeless cats, which are not at all afraid of humans. This one followed our group for a good 20 minutes, going from room to room with us.
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We took a little walk to the top of Janiculum Hill, which is essentially the backyard of our neighborhood, Trastevere. This is the hill from which they fire the cannons every day at noon so the churches all ring their bells simultaneously.
The hill is full of all sorts of monuments. This one is the newest, and someone has already christened it with the grit of Rome.
Anita Garibaldi has a statue at the top commemorating her badassery. She fought alongside her husband to defend Rome in 1849... While she was pregnant. Here she is depicted as a great multi-tasker -- riding a rearing stallion sidesaddle, in a dress, while nursing a baby and shooting her pistol into the sky.
This photo has nothing to do with anything else. I just really like the cobblestones in Rome. They're dark basalt, and they're worn so smooth I want to suck on them like hard candies.
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