29/07/2025
Dear friends of the Apolline Project,
Thank you for your patience during this long silence. As many of you have sensed, much has changed since the pandemic—on the surface, activity may have slowed, but quietly, beneath it all, something meaningful has been taking shape.
Today, I’m deeply pleased to share that our long-awaited restoration project at the villa with baths in Pollena Trocchia has officially begun. The vaulted room—likely the apodyterium—will be excavated, and the standing structures will be restored. The goal is clear: to safeguard the site and make it accessible to the public.
For those unfamiliar with this special place—now formally named the Villa of Axius Felix, after the owner’s seal ring unearthed there—this is the earliest known building constructed on the ash layer of the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius. Likely built by the end of the 1st century AD and inhabited until the lesser-known eruption of AD 472, the villa captures rare snapshots of life in the later Roman Empire.
This moment feels like a quiet return to where everything began. I look back—gratefully, a little wistfully—on what we accomplished since 2004, when we found the site half-buried beneath an illegal landfill set by the camorra. I remember the early challenges, the uncertainty, and the long nights. Then came the breakthroughs: students from across the globe, lives and careers shaped here, our shared growth.
We pioneered forms of Public Archaeology, long before it became common in Italy—opening the conversation to schools and the local community. I remember the day we received the European Archaeological Heritage Prize in Oslo for that very work. I think of the extensive restorations we undertook before they became institutional policy. And of course, the many theses that blossomed from this project, written by archaeologists, volcanologists, and conservators.
I’m thankful to everyone who made this possible—not only those who worked on-site, but also the local authorities, teachers, families, and all of you who followed us here and helped spread the word.
Below you’ll find a few photos: some recent ones, and others spanning the story of this extraordinary journey—from the earliest days to the present.
While updates on this page will remain occasional, I invite you to follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gfdesimone) for more frequent news. And if you can, please share this post—I would love for it to reach all those who were part of this story over the years.
Warmly,
Ferdinando
around beyond
