(Closed on Mondays)

Driving times:
Civitavecchia/Castelgandolfo: 1hr15'

Castelgandolfo/Ostia: 45'

Ostia/Civitavecchia: 45'

After meeting at the port at 8.00 or 8:30 a.m. (vehicle will be parked on the pier with your name on its windshield) we  drive to Ostia.
We will be driving on the motorway towards Rome and, before actually getting to the city, we'll turn off of it to reach Ostia, just a few miles South of Rome's airport.  Once in Ostia we will visit the famous ruins of Rome's ancient port city. Located at the mouth of the Tiber river, The ancient Roman writer Ennius says king Ancus Marcius founded Ostia in the seventh century B.C., in the fourth century was a military fort, called Castrum, that guarded the river mouth against sea borne invasions.

Ostia later gained prominence as the domestic landing for cargo boats. According to ancient sources it was the oldest Roman colony. Ostia is easily comparable to Pompeii: you walk through the ruins of a city that was abandoned in the fifth century A.D.. It is in fact a magical alternative to the crowded, and far from Rome, Pompeii as well as it is complementary to it. Ostia was for one thousand and five hundred years a ghost town, covered by marshy swamp and infested with malaria. In the early nineteen hundreds, the Italian Government ordered the first systematic archaeological excavations, and to this day, with every unearthed stone, they add to our knowledge and understanding of a city that once stood next to Rome in grandeur.

At the end of our visit of Ostia we get back to the car drive to Castelgandolfo. If there will be  time, we will stop to look at the the castle built for the Pope Julius II just outside the excavations. Castelgandolfo is lovely little town sitting right on the edge of what, millions of years ago, was the crater of a volcano and is now a beautiful lake. The town owes its name to the fact that it developed around the castle of the Gandolfo family. Pope Urban VIII Barberini, in the 17th Century, made of it the Summer Residence of the Popes. Still today the Pope spends there the hottest months of the year.

The general area is also known for its outstanding foods and there's a lovely little restaurant, right in the old part of town where, weather permitting, one can have lunch on a beautiful terrace overlooking the lake. It is a family run restaurant and all the people that work there are really dedicated and will serve you an unforgettable lunch! Plus Castelgandolfo is in the area that's famous for its wines, you probably heard of Frascati, Marino, Velletri... And the young man in charge of the restaurant is an expert sommelier that can help you make a good choice!