Sporca Miseria to Splendor!

I have an ambitious day today and it involves the Metro (subway).  It is a good time to introduce you to the saying "sporca miseria," which means 'dirty misery.' It's wretchedness and it goes something like this:

It's public and it's transport.  No worries.  Because after a few transfers you end up at the metro stop Pyramide! It was built in 18-12 BC as a tomb for Gaius Cestius though they have never found his remains in it.  It might have been raided at some point in history or there may be a chamber they haven't discovered yet.  Anyway, Cestius served in one of the campaigns to Egypt and Nubia and at the time of his death, Egyptian style was in vogue.

Half of it is inside what is now the Protestant Cemetery.  This was just what I needed, a quiet day out of the craziness of central Rome.  It's filled with birds, cats, and beautiful old tombstones.

Goodness.  Wow.  So exquisite. 

Keats and Shelley are buried in this cemetery so I went and had a moment with them.  Then, on to catch another train to Ostia Antica!!  This port city was founded in the 4th century BC.  I guess it started life as a military camp because it essentially 'guards' the mouth of the Tiber.  Hence it's name ... ostium is Latin for 'mouth.' From there it really took off as a port town and they estimate that its population was about 50,000 around the 2nd century AD.  It fell to ruin after the fall of the Empire and was abandoned, its marble 'procured' for other building projects, and then just basically covered by river silt.... which is why it exists in such a primo state.  It's not unlike what happened to Pompeii.

It's huge, acres!  You walk in on this ancient Roman road.  There are mosaic floors here and there.

The bath house has these gorgeous floors feature Neptune and other sea motifs:

There's an amphitheater:

And it's all just ... there.  Just there.  Hey ho.  No one's looking.