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While visiting the Villa dei Quintili you will
enter into a hidden world. The entrance is an almost anonymous gate along the
Via Appia Nuova where you must go by purpose. This part is the high speed part
of the road and is situated where not even houses are present. But once you
cross the gate you will be thrown 2000 years behind. The first impression is
created by the vastness of the sight. Your horizon will be filled with endless
green fields which transmits you peace and tranquillity. From one side the
horizon is limited by the view of the hill of Castelli Romani and on the other
side you will see the panorama of the today’s city. While strolling in this
beautiful countryside slowly the impressive ruins of the enormous Villa of the Roman Emperor Commodo
will welcome you. Being isolated from the today’s world, while walking around
the ruins you can breathe the atmosphere
of the Roman Empire. I cannot completely
imagine how impressive could these buildings be at that time in front of a
common person. Even today in front of a modern citizen of the world impresses
for its enormous dimensions. The other fact that will surprise you is the well
conservation of the ruins. You will be enchanted by the pavements with mosaics
that seems they have just been finished, the colours are still alive and yet
they are something like 1900 years old. It was the palace for the famous
“ozium”, we would say a country house where to go to for holidays. Consider
that it was so big that it had its own aqueduct, probably also a circus.
Consider that the emperor Commodo was a very big fan of the horse races that
were held in the Circuses. We can only imagine the luxury inside the spa, still
today you can admire the beautiful marble pavement of the same. What to
say about the Ninfeo? It was
the main entrance of the villa from the Appia Antica road. Consider that the
Appia Antica was the most important of the Roman roads and the majority of the
important guests would arrive from there so, he must be impressed with a
monumental entrance. Also today you will remain enchanted seeing it. To give you an idea on how enourmous is the
site, consider that in the 18th century it was called the “Old Rome” by the
Grand Tour visitors while discovering it, they thought that it was another city
in the nearby of Rome and it was abandoned in the past.
Goethe in year 1786 described the Roman
countryside around Villa dei Quintili by: “ These men were working for the
eternity. They have foreseen everything, except the stupidity of the
devastation, to which all this had to surrender.
