Oplontis
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Archaeological Areas Of Pompei, Herculaneum And Torre Annunziata, Inscribed 1997), A Luxury Roman Villa Buried In AD 79 With The Best Preserved Second Style Painting Of The Group · Torre Annunziata, Campania
A single Roman villa, buried by the same eruption as Pompeii, sitting in an excavated pit between modern apartment blocks in an unglamorous coastal town, and holding the best wall painting of the whole Vesuvian group. That is the trade: no streets, no forum, no plaster casts, no crowd, and rooms of second-style fresco in a state of preservation that Pompeii cannot match, with painted colonnades opening onto painted gardens, a glass bowl of fruit rendered so exactly that it is reproduced in every textbook, and peacocks and theatrical masks along the cornices. It is traditionally linked to Nero's second wife on the evidence of one inscribed amphora, which is thin and is usually stated as fact anyway. The villa was empty and under refurbishment when Vesuvius went, so there are no bodies here. On a weekday you can be the only person in it, twenty minutes by local train from Pompeii. Do it after Pompeii rather than before, because the whole point is the comparison.
Via Sepolcri 1, Torre Annunziata, Campania, 80058, Italy
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: a state archaeological site opening daily with a last admission an hour or more before closing, running later in summer and shutting mid-afternoon in winter, closed on 1 January and 25 December. The state free first Sunday applies. Individual rooms close for conservation on a rotating basis that is not published. The Circumvesuviana runs from early morning to late evening. Confirm before travelling, and buy the combined Vesuvian ticket at Pompeii.