Stabia

So today we drove south out of Pompeii to the next town along the coast, Stabia. This was famous for its very richly decorated high status shore-front villas, and as the place where Plini, admiral of the fleet , sailed to try and rescue people from the AD79 eruption, and him dying on the beach in the process.

We went to two spectacular villas: villa Arianna, (named for a fresco of Ariadne and Theseus) and villa San Marco, Each built right onto the cliff overlooking the bay, and consisting of dozens of rooms covered with fabulous frescoes. Afterwards to a really good museum (museo libero d'orsi) full of fine artifacts from the villas, and after a quick visit to the modern seafront, to another museum (Terzigno) way up on the lower slopes of the volcano to see things from 3 more modest villas around it that were discovered from digging a quarry. These villas were primary involved in producing wine and olive oil but also had some decorated rooms.Read more