The interministerial economic planning committee (CIPE) on Wednesday approved a Grand Project for Ostia Antica along the lines of the one that has enhanced visits to Pompeii. The CIPE earmarked some 40 million euros to valorise and reopen some areas of the ancient Roman port as well as setting up a new unified visit system linking up the archaeological site of Portus and highlighting the landscape of the area, sources said.

The project will also set up a university campus offering a new degree course by the Roma Tre University, also linked to Ostia's university annex. In 2014 Rome's archaeological superintendecy announced new findings at Ostia, saying the "secret" site was bigger than Pompeii. The "exceptional results" revealed that Rome was "split in two by the Tiber River in the First Century BC," it said.