Roma Lido line
Porta San Paolo, Rome · about 30 min
The honest recommendation here: it costs a metro ticket, runs from beside Piramide on line B, and the Ostia Antica stop is a footbridge from the entrance. Hard to beat on price or convenience.
Italy · DestinationOstia
Ostia
Mediterranean
Ancient Rome's port and the city's seaside: the excavations of Ostia Antica and the Lido, half an hour from the centre.
Ancient Rome's port and the city's seaside: the excavations of Ostia Antica and the Lido, half an hour from the centre.
Visiting Ostia
Ostia is a Mediterranean destination in Lazio, Italy. Browse handpicked vacation rentals, guided tours and experiences, boat charters and airport transfers, then book directly with the local hosts and drivers behind each listing.
How to arrive in Ostia
Half an hour from Porta San Paolo on a metro ticket, and the stop is a footbridge from the gate. The rare Roman day trip that public transport does well.
Private transfer
Rome or Fiumicino (FCO) · about 40 min from Rome
Earns its place for the airport, only 20 km away, or when you pair the excavations with the beach, which are a few kilometres and one bus apart. Also for arriving early and leaving when the heat does.
What to see
The Thermopolium with its marble counter and painted menu, the black and white mosaics of the Baths of Neptune, the theatre still used in summer, and apartment blocks three storeys high.
What to eat
At the Lido it is fish, simply done, facing the water. At the excavations there is a cafeteria and little else: on a hot day bring water, because the site is long and the shade is uneven.
Around Ostia
The Lido beaches a few kilometres on, the pine forest of Castel Fusano behind them, and Fiumicino just up the coast, where the fish restaurants at the port are better than anything at the airport.
Accommodation
Where are the best places to stay in Ostia?
Where to stay in Ostia
Ostia offers a range of places to stay, from design hotels and boutique apartments to family-run guesthouses. Every property is handpicked and booked directly with the local host.
We're currently curating the best stays in Ostia for our collection. In the meantime, browse our handpicked places across the Mediterranean — many within easy transfer reach.
Ask us about stays in OstiaExperiences
What are the best things to do in Ostia?
What to do in Ostia
Ostia offers guided tours, tastings and local experiences led by people who know the area. Every experience is curated and booked directly with the local operator.
We're expanding our tours and experiences in Ostia. In the meantime, explore everything available across our Mediterranean destinations — many include pick-up nearby.
Ask us about tours in OstiaGet Around
How do I get around Ostia?
Naples Airport
Private car · Fixed price
Naples City Center
Private car · Fixed price
Naples Port
Private car · Fixed price
Naples Station
Private car · Fixed price
Meta di Sorrento
Private car · Fixed price
Piano di Sorrento
Private car · Fixed price
Sant'Agnello
Private car · Fixed price
Massa Lubrense
Private car · Fixed price
Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi
Private car · Fixed price
Nerano
Private car · Fixed price
Marina del Cantone
Private car · Fixed price
Vico Equense
Private car · Fixed price
Travel guide
What should I know before visiting Ostia?
The city the sea left behind
Ostia was the port of Rome for the best part of a thousand years, founded at the mouth of the Tiber and grown into a town of some fifty thousand people. Then the river shifted, the harbour silted up, malaria emptied the streets, and the sea itself withdrew: today the ruins stand about three kilometres inland, which is why the place survived. Nobody built over it.
Ostia Antica is the result, and it is the closest thing Rome has to Pompeii. It is also, in places, better preserved, because what stands here is an ordinary working town rather than a resort: warehouses, apartment blocks of three and four storeys, laundries, a fire station, and the Thermopolium, a bar with its marble counter and a painted menu still on the wall. The Baths of Neptune keep their black and white floor mosaics, and the theatre above the old forum is still used for summer performances.
Allow three hours at least. The site is large, flat and open, with umbrella pines for shade in some stretches and none at all in others, and the paving is the original stone, which is uneven.
The other Ostia
A few kilometres on lies Lido di Ostia, which is the sea of Rome in the plainest sense: the beach the city reaches on a Sunday, a long seafront of establishments and free stretches, busy in July and August and rather melancholy out of season. It is not a resort in the Amalfi sense and does not pretend to be, but it is where you go if the point of the day is water rather than ruins.
Getting there
This is the rare Roman day trip that public transport does well: the Roma Lido line runs from Porta San Paolo, beside Piramide on metro line B, and the Ostia Antica stop leaves you a footbridge away from the entrance to the excavations. Half an hour, on a metro ticket.
By road it is about 40 minutes from the centre, more in summer traffic towards the coast. A car or a transfer makes sense if you are combining the excavations with the beach, if you are coming from Fiumicino, which is only 20 km away, or if you want to arrive early and leave when the heat arrives rather than when the train does.
Frequently asked
About Ostia
Is Ostia Antica better than Pompeii?+
It is different, and for a visitor staying in Rome it is usually the better use of a day. Pompeii is larger, more famous and far more crowded, and it is three hours away by train each way. Ostia is half an hour from the centre, rarely busy, and shows something Pompeii does not: an ordinary working port, with warehouses, three-storey apartment blocks, laundries and a bar whose painted menu is still on the wall. What Pompeii has and Ostia does not is the shock of the eruption, the casts and the sense of a town stopped in a single afternoon. If you have a week in Rome and a day to spend, Ostia wins on arithmetic alone.
Can I combine the excavations with the beach?+
Yes, and in summer it is the sensible shape of the day: the excavations in the morning, when the site is walkable and the light is good, the Lido in the afternoon. They are a few kilometres apart, connected by the same railway line plus a short hop, or by ten minutes of road. Bear in mind the site is large, flat and only partly shaded, so three hours there in July is real effort, and that the Lido is at its busiest in exactly those two months.
Browse handpicked villas, curated tours and local experiences.