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| archaeological ruins |
Steps – 20,177; broke 20,000!
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| ruins |
It’s amazing how many seemingly
minor archeological sites there are to visit around Fiumicino. The Archaeological Area of the Ports of
Claudius and Trajan is about 3 km from our hotel - an easy walk. €6 for
entry and €5 for the audio guide to wander around this site with only a handful
of other people.
This place was an artificial port (7m deep and paved with stone) that served as the main port for ancient Rome. For more than 500 years this port and warehouse area provided a way for goods to be brought into Rome. Around the site were the ruins of warehouses that held the goods.
The columns were theRoman Empire's largest storage complex.
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| columns |
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| columns |
The main attraction of the area was the artificial hexagonal (no one knows why it is this shape) bay/port measuring 357m/side which was made to solve silting issues of the port at the mouth of the river Tiber. There is on-going excavation of this, so we couldn’t see it. We knew this going in, but it was a real shame not to be able to see it. We could see a tiny sliver of it, but not the enormity of it.
On the way back, we stopped in at the ‘Taste of Fiumicino’. It had just opened when we arrived, so just like the ruins, there were no crowds. We were parched after our archeological visit, so found a beer stall straight away! 2 craft beers for €7 each – Chris had a pilsner called ‘Demon’ and I had an IPA called ‘Angel’. In
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| ruins of warehouses |
retrospect we probably overpaid as other drinks in the festival were less, but oh well…drinking beer in the shade definitely hit the spot!
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| bathhouse mosaic |
A bit more of a wander through the stalls and
we found a spritz seller… spritzes are all the rage in Italy, but Fiumicino spritz
flavour selections are on another level! We’ve probably seen 10-15 different
flavours of spritzes here. I had a passion fruit spritz – molto bene, and Chris
had a Campari – also good, but not nearly as good as mine. I’m inspired and
will definitely be making passion fruit spritzes at home! I may even have to
talk to a bartender on the cruise to make me one.
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| so many choices |
In addition to the drinks, there were many interesting foods on offer…kind of the usual offerings for a food stall/festival situation, but the one Italian difference was the fried fish! Fried
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| moscardini |
calamari, shrimp, anchovies, and…my choice…moscardini – a tiny species of octopus. These were breaded, fried, and served with a lemon wedge in a paper cone…another molto bene. €13.
Our next destination was naptown, but not before hitting a couple more grocery stores. I am always on the lookout in European stores for tiny, pop-in-your-mouth
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| cone of fried moscardini |
salamis. We came across these a few times on previous trips and can’t find them again. We may have found them only in France, so maybe that’s the problem because again…none to be found.
The rest of the afternoon was spent at the
room, napping, blogging, and watching the sunset.
Dinner was pizza, wine, and fried calamari/shrimp.
This meal was OK. Everything about it was just OK, I’m not sad about it, but
was so looking forward to pizza and it was just…OK.
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