In 1957, digging the foundations of a block of flats in a small valley above Verona, the workmen found a Roman villa of the first century. Three rooms opening onto an L-shaped portico have been freed; the rest is still under the modern buildings, and there it will stay. It was a luxurious suburban residence, set on several levels along the slope, with a view over the city.
What to see
The main room was the triclinium, where the owner ate with his guests reclining on three couches. Here it has a particular form, with the colonnade on three sides and columns of pink stone with carved capitals: one, decorated with dolphins, can even be dated. The columns stand at irregular distances, so as not to take light from the windows.
The floor is mosaic, with a dark band round the edge and a white field in the middle, and between the columns coloured panels with leaves and birds. On the walls was a fresco showing a garden: the room opened onto a real garden on one side and a painted one on the other.
Visiting
The villa is in Valdonega, on the hill north of the Adige, fifteen minutes on foot from the Roman theatre; access is limited and tied to openings by booking, because the site lies inside a private courtyard. Half an hour.
Our editors' tip
Dwell on the idea of the painted garden: wealthy Romans had their inner walls frescoed with plants and birds so that the room seemed surrounded by green on every side. It is a solution we would call wallpaper in a modern house, and two thousand years ago it was the way never to leave your own park.