During our trip to Italy, one of the amazing places that we visited were the Excavations at Ostia Antica (Scavi di Ostia Antica). We spent most of a day exploring this magnificent museum and definitely did not get to see all of it; what you find in these excavations is a sense of what life was like in this ancient harbor of Rome, not through depictions and descriptions, but by the raw footprint and beauty that has been uncovered.
Walking through neighborhoods gives a feeling of what was being done in each of them and how this evolved over time. People lived and worked in these locales and left their imprint through their buildings, statuary and mosaics.

This statue of Cupid and Psyche was located in the Domus di Amore e Psiche near the temple of Hercules. This house was excavated in 1938.
As I get time to go over all my photos, there will be much more from these wonderful excavations.