At the fifth mile of the Appian Way, on a site built out from the lava ridge of the ancient road and redolent with ancient legends, the Villa of the Quintili was once one of the very grandest residences of all of the Empire. Its wealthy owners, the Quintili brothers, came to a sticky end at the hands of the tyrannical Emperor Commodus (the once who wanted to be a gladiator in the first Gladiator movie) who seized it for himself. It’s a fabulous, melancholic, evocative, bucolic place to visit, and you can almost always have it all to yourself. For more images here’s a reel I made in spring 2022.
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