Diving in Rome-Who knew...

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

goflyplanes

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
154
Reaction score
68
Location
Columbus, GA
# of dives
200 - 499
So I've been living in this country for a little over a year at this point and have only recently started diving with one of the diving clubs here. Usually they dive Largo Bracciano on the weekends (not a fan) but this weekend we all headed to the beach to dive in the Marine park off the coast of Ostia. OMG it was so amazing! There were lobster, eels, jellyfish, and HUGE grouper! And the coral/sponges/plant life was fantastic. I never realized Italy (not counting Sicily and Sardinia), much less Rome had this good of diving! Makes me wonder what else Italy is hiding. Any one else have any places they just up and decided to go diving in Italy and found a little underwater gem? I think I have a couple weekends I have to fill later this semester =D
 
Good news. I was only able to free dive near Rome when I was there in the late 60s... maybe I should return! I loved Italy.
 
When we traveled to Rome we stayed in Ostia Lido and I tried to find a dive center. Luckily I found the Blue Marlin, and the owner, Sabrina let me join a boat dive to the Tor Paterno which is a protected area. I really enjoyed the diving, there were shoals of fish, jackfish, moray, nudibranch etc. Although we went to Rome for the Colosseum and the other usual staff it was surprising to see how now can it be under water in the area. (And I bought my great semi-dry Rofos in Sabrina's shop which is still my favorite dive suit...)
 
The marine area is "Secche di Tor Paterno" there is a a diving with that name but if you google tor paterno and diving you will get most of them.
Water temp in August/september is 27-29 C (a quick way to convert is multiply by 2 and add 30 the full conversion is multiply by 9 divide by 5 and add 32).

I have been diving since I was 14 and now I am 47. for the initial 20 years I was not certified and I did not log any dive since I have got certified I did log a couple hundred dives.
I never thought to dive in a lake, diving in the sea around Italy is the way to go, much more to see, better temperature and visibility and plenty of wrecks in both recreational and technical depth ranges.
Fabio
 
Thank you. I love Rome. It is such a walkable city and one of my favourite vacation destinations. Knowing there is good diving nearby makes it even better. I'll have to plan for an extra day or two for diving.

:banana:
 
I'm going to be in Rome for a few days next month. Can you give me some more info about this marine park off the coast of Ostia? Maybe the name of a shop that does trips and retals? Thanks!
 
I did not dive there but some pointers, unfortunately in Italian (google translator will help and most of the time if you ask info by email in english the answer will be in english).
Official website about the protected marine area (marine reserve)
Secche di Torpaterno ? Area Marina Protetta
search keywords for google
secche di tor paterno diving

some of the results:
Roma Diving Center - Lo Staff
TOR PATERNO DIVING CENTER

Not endorsing any ....

Cheers

Fabio
 
Thanks Fabio,

I had tried searching that from your previous post, I think I got confused with the google translate. Also, you wouldn't know any dive sites or dive shops near Sorrento, would you? We are going there after Rome and I'd really like to do some diving in the south.

Cheers,

-Cody
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom