Rome’s ancient port city, Ostia Antica is about an hour outside of the city. Though it dates all the way back to the 3rd century B.C.E and was sacked and rebuilt numerous times, its buildings, streets, mosaics and frescoes have remained very well preserved over these many centuries.

When I visited Ostia soon after arriving in Rome, my initial feeling was of being inside the secret garden (you know, the popular English story about the girl who discovers an old locked away garden that has become overgrown and untouched for years but still holds some sort of magic in it). It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture what this bustling trade city must have been in its better days. Once you pay the small entrance fee into the site you’re basically free to wander the maze of ruins as you please. The city is large and much of it still overgrown with bushes and vines (2 thirds of the town have been entirely excavated.

When you first enter be sure to look around the amphitheater and nearby market stalls. You can still see the inlaid mosaics on the ground, once used to indicate what good was  being sold at which stall.

Continue further down the road to enter into the main part of the city. You will be able to see what used to be shops, a public bathing facility, and go on a scavenger hunt for the public latrines. You’ll know when you find them by the holes cut out of stone slabs for which people used to sit.

Now, because Ostia’s preservation is so intact, it is a popular training grounds for young archaeologists conducting research as well as history buffs who want a glimpse of ancient Rome’s past.