Vestibule

The protagonists of the mosaic and the military themed frescoes

The upper register, which would have housed the most distinguished people, shows the entire figure of a young man holding a branch with lanceolate leaves in his right hand. This subject may allude not only to the rite of the adventus and the salutatio referring to the dominus, but could also refer to a sacrifice in honour of the Lares or the nuncupatio votorum for the January calends.
In front of the young man, dressed in robes enriched with clavi and orbiculi that suggest his high rank, an elderly figure holds a torch, a detail that identifies him as the master of the ceremony or the lampadarius . In the lower register, which is almost entirely lost, we can only see the fragments of three figures crowned with laurel and arranged as if to form a choir; of them, the young man on the left recites a poem holding a diptych in his right hand.

The central representation is framed by a geometric motif with elongated hexagons that would have outlined the unofficial area.
On the walls, a geometric division in rectangles probably contained images of soldiers, which emphasised the importance of the room. The middle part of the eastern wall retains only the feet, enclosed in shoes, of a male figure with a dark complexion, and part of his legs.The same fresco decoration, represented by a line of armed men with shields, decorated the walls of the official or ascending route of the peristyle, creating correspondence to the level of importance between the two rooms.

The possible celebration of a solemn event

The senses tell the Basilica

A view of the race from the imperial gallery

The protagonists of the mosaics

Form of greeting or ritual?

The senses tell the private entrance to the spa

The senses tell the Bi-Apsed room

A dialogue between mythological and realistic scenes

A small room embellished with marble

The senses tell the room in the private apartment known as “small hunt”

A large colonnaded portico, a place of connection between the rooms

The senses tell the frigidarium

High-ranking characters depicted in the mosaics of the apsidal niches of the frigidarium

An individual who has attracted the attention of scholars

The capture of wild animals for the roman amphitheatre games

The senses tell the Vestibule

The paths of virus, a reflection of the Dominus

Outdoor breakfast

Is the profile of the dominus hidden among the scenes depicted in the mosaics?

A day of hunting at the villa

Semi-public rooms

The prestige of the dominus is revealed through the wall frescoes

The public and private rooms of the villa

A chariot race, set in the circus Maximus of Rome, connects the villa to the city and centre of power

A hidden meaning

Solemn and majestic architecture to welcome a high-ranking commissioner

The Latifundium

The rural sacrifice

The senses tell the Tri-Apsed Triclinium

The senses tell the bi-apsed ambulatory – Corridor of the “Great Hunt”

Worship of the Lares

A royal room housed the Dominus during his audiences

The mansio of Philosophiana. A stopping place

The late antiquity residence: locus amoenus and centre of administrative activities in the heart of Sicily

An organic microcosm: the structure of the villa

An eloquent symbol: the signum

The catalogue of animals

A small room used as a privileged entrance to the baths

The realistic depiction of a spa procession with a high-ranking female figure

Banquets and panegyrics enlivened the vast hall, against the background of a floor mosaic celebrating the feats of Hercules

The golden age: hypotheses about the villa’s period of construction and clues

The senses tell the Quadrangular Peristyle

Auspicious symbols and perhaps the initials of the commissioner’s name decorate the mosaic of the apsidal room

A small room represents one of the activities of the thermal bath route

The astral interpretation of the mosaic

The senses tell the monumental entrance

The main nuclei of the Domus

The marble from the regions of the empire to decorate the basilica

The mosaics of the late antiquity residence

The senses tell the Sacellum of the Lares

A line of armed men for an important Dominus

An official ceremony to welcome the Dominus

The apotheosis of Hercules

The protagonists of the mosaic and the military themed frescoes

The senses tell the massage room