Fodor's Expert Review Casa dei Cervi

In antiquity, the Casa dei Cervi was one of the first houses that visitors to the town would have passed as they entered the city from the seaward side. As in most top-notch town residences, however, the entranceway is plain and leads into a vestibulum, a small vestibule, that opens onto an open courtyard called a peristylium. The showpiece in this particular house is the garden area, surrounded by a so-called cryptoporticus embellished with fine still life frescoes and terminating in a partially reconstructed gazebo. Of course, prior to the eruption, the house would have had a fine view over the Bay of Naples.