Roman Holiday: How the ancients vacationed

The wealthy Roman patrician Gaius Antonius lies on the terrace of his magnificent villa high above the Gulf of Naples and looks out at the sea.

A slave serves him wine and exquisite food. Just a few days earlier, Antonius had fled the July heat of Rome to his country estate, which lacks nothing in luxury and amenities.

The Senate of the Roman Empire is on summer recess, and the patrician can devote himself entirely to relaxation and the good life.

In the afternoon he is expecting guests he has invited friends to spend the hot season with him. In the evening, they will be pampered in the thermal baths in the spa town of Baiae on the shores of the Gulf of Naples. Self-care vacations are very popular with the Roman elite.

Number one local recreation destination: the Gulf of Naples

The Gulf of Naples was the Romans' favorite vacation destination, with the upper classes residing in villas by the sea and in the mountains.

"No bay in the world can rival the beautiful Baiae," raved the poet Horace.

Excursion boats sailed across the sea, and in the evening, as the historian Pliny the Younger reported, people met for a sumptuous oyster dinner.

Less well-heeled Romans were also drawn to the Gulf, going to Tibur (now Tivoli), Antium (now Anzio) and Baiae, now sunken at the bottom of the sea.

This was not a classic seaside vacation in today's sense. People did splash around on the beach but were mainly interested in the healing springs in the thermal baths.

Those who had enough money had the foundations of their thermal baths built directly into the sea, so that they could then swim in the safe and well-tempered pool surrounded by the ocean waves. For the Roman philosopher Seneca, this was the epitome of Roman decadence.

Baiae was not only a seaside resort but also notorious for excesses of party-loving vacationers — so much so that Seneca once again had reason to complain: "Why must I look at drunks staggering along the coast and endure the noise of parties blaring from sailboats?"

His fellow Latin poet Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis) took aim at the ubiquitous adultery in the seaside town in one of his epigrams: "Laevina, so chaste … while frequently refreshing herself in the baths of Baiae … (fell) into flames of love, and, leaving her husband, fled with a young gallant."

Long journeys

Those who were ready for a long journey moved relatively safely within the vast Roman Empire. Moreover, Latin was spoken everywhere.

The roads, which were actually built for the Roman armies, were in good condition, and people either walked, traveled by carriage or had themselves carried in a sedan chair. If you were in good shape, you could do maybe 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) a day on foot, up to 80 by carriage and a little more by horse.

On a map from Stanford University, users can calculate how long it took to get from one place in the empire to another, indicating means of transportation and financial possibilities.

There were also hostels along the way that provided food. Many Romans stayed overnight at the country estates of local families. The so-called "hospitium publicum" (public hospitality) was an agreement between families that obliged the hosts to accommodate the travelers.

Those who chose the sea route could travel on a merchant ship for a given fee — classic tourist ships did not exist at that time. The main fear was seasickness, while the seas were largely free of pirates.

Open to everything, except the ‘barbarians'

Egypt was a popular destination, with the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and the Lighthouse of Alexandria attracting hordes of vacationers.

But tourists also walked in Homer's footsteps through Troy or flocked to the sites of famous battles — for example, Marathon, where the Greeks defeated a Persian army in 490 BC.

Even back then, study trips existed to Naples, for example, or to Athens. It was only to the "barbarians," as all non-Romans and non-Greeks were called, that no one wanted to travel voluntarily.

The ancient temples of Greece, on the other hand, appealed to Roman tourists. Local travel guides explained what the Oracle of Delphi or Olympus, the dwelling place of the gods, were all about, and the Greek author Pausanias (110-180 AD) wrote one of the very first "travel guides" about the sights of his homeland.

Souvenirs even in ancient Rome

Wherever the travelers went, the locals sniffed out profits to be gained from the wealthy tourists from Rome.

And so, even then, there were all kinds of souvenirs to buy, from miniature pyramids to silver statues to clay jars painted with the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

The travel-loving Emperor Hadrian went one step further: he even had miniature models of famous sights built in his Villa Adriana in Tibur (Tivoli).

This article was originally written in German and adapted into English by Louisa Schaefer.