Stabiae Villas

We have read, and observed, that the average visit to Pompei is about two hours. Our opening-to-closing visits over the years have been great, but they do tend to wear you out, especially at our advanced ages, and so we took the next day off, partly administrative, partly resting. The next day, however, May 27th, we ventured down the Circumvesuviana to Nocera, just a few miles from Pompei toward Sorrento, to see one of the Stabiae villas. The Roman elite built large and opulent villas along the coast here which also were destroyed and buried by Vesuvius in 79 AD. Perhaps the most famous is the Villa of Arianna.

Garden scene along the way

Seafood shoppe in Nocera

There was no signage until you actually got to the site, up the hill

The villas included many buildings, sprawling over some acres

As always, our interest was mostly the mosaics and frescoes

I like to think of this as the library or reading room

Great interpretive signage; and in English too

Dionysus "lovingly" admiring Ariadne

Muy importante: the Diana figure at the right is actually PENELOPE, dressed
as Diana (it's complicated)

Spare parts; rooms and rooms of spare parts

Vesuvius, biding its time, beyond Nocera

Everything's up to date in Nocera

A good illustration of frescoes taken off the walls to Naples and the duke/
monarch there, financing the excavations: "bring me the good stuff, destroy
all the rest"; this is why you have to go to Naples to see what is most
important from Pompei