ROME 5: By this point I was well and truly sick of tourists and being crammed in like a sardine everywhere I went. Yes I know it was high season in Italy's capital, but I'm just one of those people who can't stand being surrounded by other people for too long. I like time to appreciate things without being rushed, so therefore trying to do something like climbing the cupola of St Peter's in August was not a good idea. Claustrophobics beware, it's a very small space, there are people behind, people in front, and it's stiflingly hot, with no air. Fun for all!! But the view was worth it! Anyway I digress: to escape the tourists for a day, I caught the train out to Ostia Antica, an ancient Roman town whose ruins you can now stroll amongst.

Walking along one of the ancient streets of Ostia: as you can see, not a tourist in sight! Bliss!!

This place was fascinating, because if you compare it to somewhere like Pompei, the ruins are incredibly intact, and you can walk through everything. There are houses, baths, temples, shops, all the things you would expect a village to have. And because it's so well preserved, you can easily imagine what life would have been like back then. These mosaic floors are everywhere, with all sorts of themes and stories told on them. There was one at the pub for example that had prostitutes on it!

A statue amongst the ruins; apparently not a replica like you often find, but the restored real deal

Some strange Australian tourist I saw wandering amongst the ruins

A temple

The stadium: they still have concerts and plays here, it would definitely make for excellent ambience

Another one of the mosaic floors. The story behind this one interested me, I saw it in a large pavilion that was lined on all sides by shops. Because Ostia was an important port town, it was a major centre of commerce. As such, traders from all over the world would sell their goods here. All the shops were decorated according to what was sold there; for example the fishmonger had fish on his floor. This shop was the property of the merchants from Africa, hence the elephant. Hopefully they didn't sell elephants!

Another temple. What surprised me about Ostia Antica was how green and shady it was, it was really nice to spend time walking through the ruins, even though it was a very hot day

What is left of the oldest synagogue in Europe

The ruins of the bath-house: there were three main areas, a caldarium (hot room), a tepidarium (warm room) and a frigidarium (no prizes for guessing, a cold room). There were also steam baths, saunas and an outdoor gymnasium for ball games and exercises. I can just see the oiled-up naked Roman men doing their aerobics singing something similar to Olivia Newton-John's Let's Get Physical!