Torre
Annunziata
Torre Annunziata is a modern
seaport in the shadow of Vesuvius, between Pompeii and Herculaneum. In
1842, the remains of three buildings were discovered and identified from
a thirteenth-century map of Roman roads as the hamlet of Oplontis. This
is the name sometimes given to the third and smallest of the amazing
excavations of the ruins caused by the volcanic eruption of 79 AD. Torre
Annunziata is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The discovery included a bath house, a rustic villa crowded with victims
of the eruption (and a hoard of gold coins and jewellery), and possibly
the greatest of all the finds associated with the Pompeii area. This is a
huge residential villa, now fully excavated and partly restored, that was
part of the Imperial family's estates. It is believed to have belonged to
Poppaea Sabina, the slave mistress of the Emperor Nero, who became his
second wife, so the house is often called the Villa Poppaea.
The villa has three principal sections, the owner's domain, the servants'
quarters, and a 'production area' that managed the estate, doing
everything necessary for the upkeep of both a great house and a farm. It
offers a first-class insight into the lives of elite Romans. The long
colonnaded walks, the trompe l'oeil and perspective in the
frescoes (which
survive in many of the rooms) and the internal courtyard decorated with
landscapes - all reeks of luxury and excess. What a place it must have
been!
Even the villa's demise under a hail of pumice and ash clouds has
contributed to the feeling - you can see an exquisite little bird,
petrified while pecking at a fallen fig. At any rate, the Villa Poppaea
has a beauty and grandeur unequalled elsewhere in the Pompeii complex and
should not be missed as it has an unparalleled insight into the lives of
wealthy Romans.
You can get to Torre
Annunziata by either train or bus from Naples or Sorrento.
