SCAVI ARCHEOLOGICI DI OPLONTIS - VILLA DI POPPEA

Located close to Pompeii, Oplontis shared its fate with the dramatic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. This seaside resort district, occupied in antiquity by the great Roman aristocrats and patricians - oplontis literally means "opulence" - was uncovered during archaeological excavations begun in 1840. A suburb of Pompeii, the former luxury residential complex of Oplontis has been on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1997.

It's in this context that we discover the monumental and grandiose Villa of Poppea, the second wife of Emperor Nero. This sumptuous residence, built on a promontory overlooking the sea (volcanic deposits have pushed back the coastline by 400 m), is the largest (110 x 75 m) in Campania, after the Villa dei Papyri at Herculaneum (260 x 70 m). Surrounded by a beautiful garden and a colonnaded portico, the complex comprised 94 rooms: atrium, triclinium (dining room - note the particularly successful fig basket on the wall), winter gardens, kitchens, bathrooms, baths (the walls are decorated with realistic scenes), and an immense 60-meter-long swimming pool. The paintings and sculptures are in an exceptional state of preservation. The trompe-l'œil frescoes in the second Pompeian style (^1st century BC - Augustan period) are also worth a closer look, and are astonishingly modern. The art of trompe-l'œil reaches its apogee here!