"The Imperial Domus"

It occupies the ground floor of a small 19th century rural building constructed between the walls and rooms, still clearly visible, of an ancient Roman Villa whose construction, dating back to the 1st century BC, is said to have belonged to Marco Filippo, adoptive father of the Emperor Octavian Augustus. Erasmo Gesualdo, a historical researcher from the 1700s, had no doubts about the origins and ownership of the remains of the Roman walls that characterize the places and rooms currently occupied by the Reception and the waiting room of the Hotel. In one of his texts we read:

“After the Via di Flacca, it passes along the Arcella beach. Then, a few steps away, you will find the foundations of the said road, on the bank of which, on the left, where it is called the Arcella di Andrea del Sole, there are the marvelous relics of the famous Villa of M. Filippo, husband of Azia, daughter of M. Atzio Balbo Praetor, and of Julia, sister of Julius Caesar. When she was married by M. Filippo, she was the widow of C. Ottavio, with whom she had procreated Octavian Augustus. Therefore, since it is certain that M. Filippo had frequented that villa of his, as can be seen from Cicero’s poems, it seems probable to me, also because of the air, that Augustus was raised there rather than near the Pontine Marshes”.