ROMAN ASPECTS
As you are walking around the Sorrento area, more likely than not you are seeing or walking on top of the ruins of Ancient Rome without even realizing. You may not be able to see the shadow of one of the world's greatest empires immediately, but once you notice its presence, you'll see it everywhere.
Maritime Villas
Bagni Regina Giovanna
A prime example of the ruins of Rome being all around us is in the Maritime Villas. What is the purpose of Maritime Villas? Were they just a luxury vacation home for Rome's rich and powerful families?
That is partially true, yes they were vacation homes for the rich and powerful as seen in the nearby Regina Giovanni, its original name being the Villa di Pollio Felice, built in the 1st century BC. One could assume Felice spent his time at his Villa swimming in its natural pools, and hosting extravagant parties filled with high-profile people within Rome and expensive Courtesans.
It was not just a vacation home for Felice, it, like many of the Maritime Villas was meant to provide income for its owner and assist Rome. All Maritime Villas had watchtowers to give sailors a sense of direction along the Adriatic Coast, and ports where sailors could stop, repair their ships, get supplies, and be on their way.
What made Villa di Pollio Felice so special was that it had internal ports, as illustrated by the area's reconstruction. Centuries ago where people swim and sunbathe, was a port that was protected by both man-made and natural barriers, which made it a valuable asset to the Romans, and to the owners of the Villa. For income, besides selling food, supplies, and repairs to sailors, the Villa di Pollio Felice had a plethora of fishing farms, furthering its self-sufficiency and enriching the already wealthy owner.
Peschiere Romane
Both the maritime villa of Pollio Felice and the villa of Agrippa Postumo had private fishing farms, but how did these farms operate? The Romans invented the idea of modern-day fish farming, they were meant for private consumption and to sell in local markets. The farms tended to be made of stone or were carved into rocks, and raised above sea level so fish could not escape into open waters, but were not raised to high, ensuring the consistent recycling of water. Romans raised moray eels, sea breams, eels, red mullets, and more on these farms, and their presence further indicated the wealth and status of their owners, as they were very expensive to build and maintain. Eating fish was a luxury in Rome, think a wagyu steak with lobster and caviar in present-day.
Building Atop a Fallen Empire
Villa of Agrippa Postumo
The shadow of Rome can be seen in more subtle ways than the extravagant ruins of a Maritime Villa. Sorrento is built atop Roman ruins, where restaurants sit now, and houses and shops from the Roman Empire were destroyed or built over. Two prime examples of this are seen in the Villa of Agrippa Postumo and the clocktower at Cattedrale dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo.
The Villa of Agrippa Postumo is believed to have been lived in by its namesake, who was the grandson of Rome's first emperor Augustus. Who was Postumo? He was his grandson, who Augustus eventually adopted after exiling his mother for suspected treason. Postumo was a wild teenager, and Augustus could not handle his antics any longer so he exiled him to Sorrento. Augustus had a complex line of succession, and Postumo was far from the first choice to succeed him when the Emperor died. When his grandfather died, he was immediately murdered by a Roman centurion, his throat slit. There are many theories about his death and who ordered it, was it Augustus wanting to leave no room for speculation about who was next in line for the throne? Or was it the man who would succeed Augustus, Tiberius, who did not want anyone challenging his claim?
To reach Postumo's Villa, one must either be staying at the Hotel Bellevue Syrene or may hypothetically have to do a bit of trespassing. It is a sight to see, it has direct access to the water and a beautiful pond/water garden that is known as a nymphaeum. A nymphaeum is a shrine to a nymph, which in Roman myth is a goddess typically related to nature. Nymphaeums tend to have a structure with columns surrounding it, with a pond in the middle or at the base of the structure. Postumo's nymphaeum used to be covered with both glass and regular mosaic, but looters have stripped the area dry of them in the 2 millennia since he lived there.
What makes the Sorrento Nymphaeum so extraordinary is that its ruins are used as the structure for the Hotel Bellevue Syrene, as almost a man-made hill for the modern architecture of Sorrento. At first glance, it looks like the Hotel Bellevue Syrene is built atop a cliff. However, when you are at the base of the Villa of Agrippa Postumo, it is clear that it is a man-made structure, as seen in the photographs. The hotel using the bones of an ancient civilization as its "basement" and structural base is almost a metaphor for a more advanced modern society taking over in its place, but still respecting the creations of the past.
Visualizing Postumo's Villa
If you wonder what Postumo's Villa may have looked like in its prime, look no further than the impressive homes found under the ash of Vesuvius in Herculaneum! Marble floors, massive gorgeous mosaics showing landscapes, Roman gods, and animals. In Herculaneum, one might find someone's backyard having a luscious garden where one may invite guests to eat dinner in the summers and springs. Postumo's villa had a nymphaeum in its stead, where he and his guests would eat meals pondside next to where the fish being prepared for dinner was raised and caught.
Cattedrale dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo
Every tourist who visits Sorrento passes by Cattedrale dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo and its clocktower at least once and doesn't think twice unless the bells are chiming. But, if you look at the clock tower's structure closely, you may see something out of the ordinary.
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If you get close, you can see clear as day multiple Roman columns. This begs the question, why are these columns embedded within the clock tower? The answer is simple, before the clock tower and the cathedral were built, Roman houses were in its place, the houses were subsequently demolished, and the cathedral and clock tower were built in its place. To honor and memorialize the homes that were destroyed, the architects used some of its columns as a part of the clock tower's structure.
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The clock tower is a prime example of the bones of the Roman Empire being used to create the modern-day architecture of Sorrento, and the average tourist would not think twice of it, they will not know what had to be destroyed and built over to create the sanguine paradise that is the City of Sorrento.​
Work Cited
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https://www.romanoimpero.com/2018/02/villa-pollio-felice-sorrento-campania.html
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https://fondoambiente.it/luoghi/bagni-della-regina-giovanna?ldc
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​https://www.cmea.it/ninfei-villa-agrippa-it
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https://www.casamazzola.it/sorrento-nymphaeums-and-fish-ponds/
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https://www.gpsmycity.com/attractions/the-cathedrals-bell-tower-29981.html
https://www.scelgonews.it/itticultura-la-inventarono-i-romani/
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https://galateavaglio.com/2019/08/20/agrippa-postumo-il-principe-piu-sfortunato-dellimpero/
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https://www.cmea.it/ninfei-villa-agrippa-it
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