"Villa San Marco...what you'll see." Castellammare di Stabia Travelogue by leics

The site is so little visited that I suspect if you visit out of the high season you will get a guided tour, whether you want one or not (I didn't).

The lady concerned was very pleasant and very enthusiastic, but the combination of trying to concentrate on her Italian and keep up with her very fast pace left me rather frustrated. I'd have preferred to take my time exploring and know the family which accompanied me felt the same way.

But, nevertheless, I did manage to get a feel for the place as well as take some photos.

The villa has been rather over-reconstructed, in my opinion...I prefer to use my imagination, with good drawings and information boards to assist. But at least the lines of the ruins are still fairly clear. In most rooms there's a course of red tiles to mark the edges of the original walls.

This is the vast colonnade which runs along two sides of the equally vst swimming pool...bigger than the one at Oplontis.

Around the edges of the pool are the calcified roots of huge trees which shaded it before the Vesuvian eruption.

All the rooms (apart from those for the servants) have beautiful wall decorations.

Most rooms have mosaics too, although only the black-and-white ones remain in place (the others are in museums). Here's a 'doormat' between rooms.

The kitchen area.

A corridor around the internal courtyard (there are two courtyards).

The shrine for the household gods in the main atrium...where one entered the villa.