Can anyone recommend a private guide for Ostia Antica? Thanks!

Ostia Antica is easily visited on one's own by train, walking distance from the station, a relatively small site with guidebooks available in the shop. In fact I think it would detract from the enjoyment of the peace of the place to have someone talking at you.

You might like to have a driver take you there and wait if the train ride and short walk are unappealing but I found the whole experience very pleasant and recommend doing the entire trip on your own.

I can't, but I don't think you need one. It's well marked, and most things are pretty self-explanatory, and you can read up on it beforehand.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...aster-list.cfm

You can contact the Rome guides mentioned in the above thread.

We have been working with Daniella Hunt and she has been great! She comes highly recommended by many Fodorites....

[email protected]

We are using her for Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este, which we probably could get to on our own, but I think we will learn so much more for her. It's also nice to have some help with arrangements if you need them.

The thread above in Adrienne's post is where we originally heard about Daniella.
The company she runs is called Miribilia Urbia and she will customize a tour for you. We have found her very easy to work with. www.rome-tours.com

Good luck.

Ostia is a site IMO where you don't want a guide.

A guide will likely do a half-day tour from Rome, so getting there and back cuts into your time but you will see the many of the main sites.

But what makes Ostia unique is getting away from the main sites and exploring on your own 'off the beaten track' and discovering little things not in the guidebooks or that would not have been seen on a tour.

Example; I've come upon a Fullers (industrial laundry) knowing that they discharge alot of water and knowing that the sewers/drains flow south, I explore the southside area of the Fullers and find a small latrine. Granted it's not as cool as Ostia's World reknown latrine but it's a minor discovery not in the guidebooks that I found on my own.

Think of the site as a oblong circle around a (Y), you enter at the bottom of the Y, a tour will likely only cover the straight | part of the Y which is the main street (Decumanus Maximus) where many of the main sites are (on and to the left & right of the street).

But besides those main sites you want to explore the areas in and around the top V section of the Y
and center=left of the =Y.
Also to the left as you enter is a necropolis, so veer-off there as you enter and when you are leaving just stick to the main street and see the sites you bypassed.

In Rome pick-up the OSTIA 'Guide to the Excavations' guidebook because the site might only have them in the museum/cafe area which is in the middle-right of the site.

This is from '05 but the directions and info is still generally valid and scroll-down to A_Brit_in_Ischia Mar 30 '12 post where he has a PDF link which is an excellent guide to the site on its own.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ns-march05.cfm

Click-on the map there and you can see the areas I mention above, instead of being bold lines of the main sites |_ they are spaced ---. Regards, Walter

Thanks very much for all the replys. k2

At some point during the years my Ostia photos have been on PBase - currently here...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/ost_antic

.... one irritated viewer posted that they'd found many of the mosaics covered by fallen branches or some such - with only the tour guides allowed to step over the chains and clear them for their clients.

Perhaps they're otherwise only exposed in rotation, but it did seem a bit of a cheek?

Peter

Ostia is awesome. We downloaded the Rick Steves guide to our iPods and found those to be very informative. The train ride there was very easy and the cafeteria looked wonderful however we had dinner reservations and didn't want to eat a big meal so just opted for a cold drink. Enjoy!

Here's a website that provides a lot of information: http://www.ostia-antica.org/