Perhaps one of the most exciting things I’ve done in Rome is visited the ruins at Ostia Antica which are some of the best preserved ruins to date. With its impressive Forum, large baths complex and more than one Mithraeum, you will need a good half day or more to walk around the the Ostia ruins at leisure. Great for exploring, these ruins are so detailed that you can really imagine what it would have been like to live in this seaside port. Ostia still boasts impressive mosaics and columns everywhere (statues are mostly taken away for safekeeping), and highlights include the smaller domestic details: the fishmonger’s marble slab, the bar with its wares illustrated on the wall, the communal public toilets and the residential villas with peaceful courtyards. Almost all ruins of Ostia Antica were unearthed in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The first systematic excavations, initiated by pope Pius VII, were carried out by Petrini in the years 1801-1805.

The best way to reach Ostia is by using the metro. You can leave your accommodation in Rome in the morning and be at Ostia within half an hour. Trains leave at station Piramide: get off the regular metro at Piramide, go up the escalator, turn immediately left and down the steps into the Roma-Lido station. Trains also leave at station Magliana, but we advise Piramide: this way you’re sure to find a seat on the train. A normal metro ticket will suffice for the entire journey. You need to alight at the Ostia Antica stop which is about 20minutes from the city. For a more scenic route, Ostia is also reachable by boat. You can buy your ticket to take the boat at the info point located near the Tevere river, in front of Castel San Angelo.

The town of Ostia Lido today is a very different place. A place popular with tourists and young people, Ostia is now a modern, tourist driven resort. Although it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it can’t be denied that it has a very cool party scene during the summer. In the Summer months, Romans love to hit Ostia’s beaches by day, (to enjoy the sun in one of the many paying beach establishments or at the free beach of Castel Porziano), and by night, when Romans venture out to mingle and party in one of the many clubs on the Ostia main sea strip. If you want to experience the fantastic nightlife at Ostia why not rent a apartment in Rome or hotels Rome and take a short break.
The season in Ostia starts picking up around May and in June when most of the clubs start opening their doors to Romans and tourists with their open air dance floors, candle-lit exotic lounge bars where the most cutting edge djs entertain a young and vibrant crowd.

Some of the most popular spots are the Shilling, the Spiaggetta, the Open Bar( where you can sip cocktails by the pool) and the Faber beach( where people like to sit directly on the sand with a bottle of beer and listen to music).

anastasiak :: Jul.30.2008 :: Sightseeing :: No Comments »

North Dakota is a welcoming and inviting state and is a perfect getaway for the next family vacation. If you aren’t ready to head out camping and would still like to explore an urban center, one of the best places you can go is Fargo. It offers a lot more than just its namesake movie. When you are coming to the city for the first time, you might be surprised at just how much there is to see and do. For example, the Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center has quite a few great interactive exhibits that are based, for the most part, on the culture of the Vikings. You can see the Hopperstad Stav Church Replica, which is a stunning replica of how a church in the later Viking Age of Scandinavia. Also at the museum is a replica of an actual Viking ship. This ship was even sailed all the way to Norway! You can get up close to the boat and see how the crew lived aboard the ship. This is a can’t miss Center for anyone who is interested in the culture of the Vikings. Don’t stop there, however. Check out the Red River Valley Exhibit as well. Fargo has tons to offer its visitors.

anastasiak :: Jul.13.2008 :: Sightseeing :: No Comments »

At the end of the 19th century railway construction and industrial development led to sharp increase in Moscow’s size and a rise in its population. The city’s rapid development required radical reorganization of urban and suburban public transport. The first project urban underground railway was drafted in 1901 by A.I.Antonovich together with two railway engineers, N.I.Golenevich and N.P.Dmitriev. Unfortunately the designers failed to arouse the city government’s interest and the project remained on paper. The 1902 project of two other civil engineers, P.I.Balinsky and E.K.Knorre contained a feasibility study of building “underground or elevated rapid railways off the street level in Moscow” and proposed a three-stage approach. It envisaged the construction of 67 km of elevated railway and 16 km of tunnels. It was planned that all stations would have their platforms on either side since the adjoining elevated railways and tunnels were to have two tracks. All tunnels were to be built with cast-in-situ linings, and metal crated elevated tracks were designed to be on foundations of precast piles. The key feature of this project was the original design of a three-storey Central Terminal on Vasilievsky Spusk the design of which would complement the Kremlin walls and the silhouettes of the adjacent cathedrals. In 1903, after thorough consideration, the Duma rejected the project.

The construction of an underground railway was once again on the agenda. In 1923, the Moscow City Council formed the Underground Railway Design Office at the Moscow Board of Urban Railways (Trams). They carried out preliminary studies and by 1928 had developed a project for the first route from Sokolniki to the city centre. A long period of technical examinations and coordination began during which it became clear that the projects developed were not adequate to meet the city’s needs. In July 1931 the critical situation of public transport was considered at a plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. A decision was taken “to start immediately the development of a project for underground railways to provide adequate and cheap transport for the public”. A new body called the State Construction Department for the Design and Building of the Moscow Metropolitan Underground Railway (Metrostroy) was set up on 23 September under the terms of this decision. The development of a new project began.

From the very start Metrostroy came up against great difficulties because the development of the reconstruction plan for Moscow had not yet been completed. Since there was no time to wait, the designers of the general metro layout were forced to rely on the results of topographic and geological studies of the Moscow underground combining them with those directives of the Moscow reconstruction plan which were then available. Preliminary studies of the city showed that the most intelligent solution would be the development of an initial laying of lines to correspond to Moscow’s radial-circular layout. To ease pressure on overloaded surface transport, the underground routes were to be constructed in parallel with those on the surface. In January 1932 the plan of the first lines was approved and on 21 March 1933 the Soviet Government approved a layout of 10 lines with a total route length of 80 km.
The first 11.6 km route was to provide a service from Sokolniki to Krymskaya Square branching from Okhotny Ryad to Smolenskaya Square. By the end of 1933 Metrostroy employed 36,000 people while by the middle of the following year this figure had grown to 75,000.
Work was done mainly by hand since there was a shortage of pneumatic hammers and a lack of rock loaders.

The First Train

At the end of 1934, with the Severnoye depot still under construction, the first two cars were delivered there. The motor car, No. 1, was red and the second trailer car, No. 1001, was the color of sand. They became known as “A” stock.

On 15 October these cars were used on test runs of one of the tracks between Komsomolskaya and Sokolniki. Testing of the second track began in January 1935.

On 4 February 1935 the first train ran along the whole route and two days later delegates of the Seventh All Union Congress of Soviets became honorary metro passengers. Trains began regular trial runs on 19 February. Thousands of the most distinguished workers from the city’s enterprises were invited to travel in the metro during the trial runs.

Simultaneously, efforts were concentrated on checking and tuning the automatic interlocking systems, traction and step-down substations and local control centres. Train crews checked the profile of the route, the positioning of signalling devices and defined the correct operation mode of trains, while the station staff studied all the technical devices which made up the station equipment.

On 14 May 1935 a gala meeting dedicated to the start of the metro operations was held in the Column House of Unions. Several workers received awards for the successful construction of the metro. The Moscow Komsomol organisation was awarded the Order of Lenin. The metro became part of the People’s Railway Commissariat of the USSR and was named after L.M.Kaganovich, the People’s Commissar.
Hundreds of Muscovites spent the night of 15 May 1935 at the doors of the stations to be the first passengers, and at 7 a.m. the metro was opened for public use.

 source:  link

admin :: Jun.25.2008 :: Sightseeing :: No Comments »