A fresco-covered Roman villa, found underneath a church on Italy's sun-kissed Amalfi coast, is set to open to the public for the first time in July. The opening of the villa was announced by Italy's Culture Undersecretary, Antimo Cesaro, on Saturday. Cesaro told Ansa the ruin was "a perfectly preserved archaeological treasure of enormous artistic value".

The enormous villa dates back to the second century BC and was first unearthed eight metres below the church of Santa Maria dell'Assunta in central Positano, Campania, in 2004. Prior to its discovery, the impressive abode had lain hidden since AD 79 when an eruption of Vesuvius buried it under volcanic stone and ash. The same cataclysmic eruption also buried the nearby Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Over the last 12 years, teams of international archaeologists have been working to excavate the vast villa complex, which stretches under the entire historic centre of Positano.

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Source: http://www.thelocal.it/