Today we divided our forces. Mum and Sophia went to see the Hiroshiga “Visions from Japan” exhibition of 19th century Japanese art whilst Dad went to see the Roman port town of Ostia Antica.
The exhibition contained 230 prints by Hiroshiga, mostly landscapes from some of his famous series of views. It provided some excellent variety, delightfully lacked large deranged groups of tourists and instead contained mostly educated looking Italians of a certain age. Sophia was able to practice trying to read some of the titles on Japanese and identified some interesting stylistic connections with Manga.
Dad meanwhile was hugely impressed with Ostia Antica. It took about 20 minutes to get there on the train from Rome and was well worth it. The site is HUGE and despite being there from 11:30 to 18:00 with a short break for lunch, Dad only managed to see just over a third of it.
Much of the site is overgrown and rarely visited.
The large formal buildings such as the theatre are very impressive, but what Dad liked most was wandering through the suburbs and exploring the numerous houses. Although the site was busy with visitors, it was only necessary to wander a short way down a side road to be nearly alone and able to imagine the that one was back in Roman times.
Until late in the day, the more popular areas were spoilt by numerous school parties. Why is it that the members of such groups have to bellow to each other all of the time?
Clearly, with less than half of the site covered, at least one more visit is required!
Finally, Dad would like to apologise for the annoying white splodges spoiling some of his photos. He got some dirt on his lens near the start of the day and didn’t notice until nearly the end. He is very annoyed about this!