Scavi di Oplontis - Villa Poppea — Attraction in Torre Annunziata

A Hidden Gem That Took My Breath Away

I wasn’t fully prepared for the extraordinary beauty of the Oplontis site. Unlike Pompeii or Herculaneum, which often steal the spotlight, this lesser-known villa offers an experience that feels almost intimate—and unexpectedly moving.

What surprised me most was the sheer richness of what remains. As soon as I entered, I was struck by the vivid wall paintings, still bursting with color and detail after two millennia. The frescoes give a real sense of the luxury and aesthetic refinement that once filled this villa.The sense of opulence lingers in every room.

What made the visit even more powerful was the visible evidence of the eruption that entombed the villa. In the garden, you can see the actual layers of ash and pumice laid down by Vesuvius—clearly stratified, and eerily beautiful. In one area, you can even see how the volcanic debris surged through a window, frozen mid-intrusion for eternity. It brought the disaster home in a very physical, immediate way.

Oplontis is more than a site—it’s a moment of Roman life, suspended in time....

about villa poppaea

Villa Poppaea contains the remains of a grand ancient Roman residence in the Oplontis site, near Pompeii in Italy.

Dating back to the 1st century AD, Villa Poppaea was expanded in the Claudian era and was believed to have belonged to Poppaea Sabina, the second wife of the emperor Nero. However, when it was excavated, archeologists found no furnishings or bodies in Villa Poppaea, indicating that it was uninhabited in 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted, shrouding it in mud and ash. Instead, on the day of the eruption, it is thought that Villa Poppaea was undergoing renovations to fix damage caused to it by frequent earthquakes in the area.

Today, Villa Poppaea sits in the modern town of Torre Annunziata and is the only part of the Oplontis site open to the public. Villa Poppaea is magnificent both in terms of its large size and because of the beautiful marble sculptures and frescos which it contains. Only the eastern part of Villa Poppaea is fully excavated, the western half lying under the...

This site can be found after a 5 minute walk downhill from the Torre Annunziata - Oplontis railway station. It costs 8 euros to enter, but instead we bought the Pompeii 3 day ticket there, which cost 26 euros (each). These would then give us access to Pompeii later (and allowed to to avoid the queues for tickets there). The villa is a goodly size, richly decorated in many of its rooms and its walls have been refurbished to their original heights in most cases. It also has a roof, so ok to visit in wet weather. Unlike the nearby Stabia villas, which still possess views out across the Bay of Naples, this property now sits in a hole, as the rear of the property was walled off when a canal was built across it in the...