TO GET PEACE AND QUIET AWAY from the city of Pompeii, rich and fun-loving folk would come to nearby Oplontis for banquets and bathing or just to chill out amidst the villa’s gardens. Here’s where you’ll find room after room of amazing frescos that outshine most of what you’ll see in Pompeii, and you’ll get a good feel of what life was like in the suburbs before the whole shebang got covered in lava in that famous 79 A.D. eruption.

Unlike Pompeii, Oplontis (one stop away on the Circumvesuviana train line) is free of tourist crowds, so you can poke around in silence and let your imagination run free, picturing the intriguing woman who supposedly lived here, the Empress Poppea Sabina, Nero’s second wife.

The Roman writer Tacitus described Poppea as bisexual and very ambitious. She married Emperor Otho to get close to Nero, soon became Nero’s mistress, and then egged Nero on to murder his mother and divorce and execute his first wife. Poppea was a high-maintenance empress who insisted upon being carried about by mules shod with golden shoes, and needed to bathe daily in donkey milk, or, as some accounts say, the milk of 500 asses.

When Poppea married Nero, she gave birth to a daughter who died four months later. While Poppea was pregnant with their second child, Nero flew into a rage, accusing her of spending too much time flirting with gladiators. And then he kicked her to death. In another version of her story, made famous in the movie, The Producers, Nero jumped on Poppea. You may remember Leo Bloom screaming in fear to Max Bialystock: “I know you’re going to jump on me—like Nero jumped on Poppea…Poppea. She was his wife. And she was unfaithful to him. So he got mad and he jumped on her. Up and down, until he squashed her like a bug.”

But before all the horror stories, Poppea and her guests must have had luxurious times here at Oplontis. When you get here, you stand above the villa for a great view of the huge gardens, loaded with oleander. Inside is an atrium, salons and dining rooms with walls vibrantly frescoed to give a 3-D effect of marbled architecture, accented by colorful peacocks and theatrical masks. In the private spa, a painting tells the story of the Hesperides (daughters of the night) who lived in the garden of golden apple trees that Hercules visited when he was on one of his twelve assignments to gather fruits for King Eurystheus.

The portico corridors are more subtly painted with enchanting birds against ivory backgrounds. These open to curved indoor garden sitting rooms, where my favorite frescos have sumptuous paintings of fountains and ferns against an amber background, bordered by rich red. And then there’s the huge rectangular outdoor pool that must have been dreamy to swim in with meadows in the distance back in those days.

On a memorable visit, one of the signorina guards had brought her dog to work, and the friendly mutt followed me around until an Italian tourist couple arrived with two daughters who were more thrilled with the pooch than the frescos. I left the group behind—the girls playing with the dog, as their parents wandered through just like I had, oohing and ahhing as they turned corners to be met with discovery upon discovery of beauty in this most enchanting, evocative place.

Oplontis: November-March 8:30-5, April-October 8:30-7:30, pompeiisites.org/en/oplontis.

TIP: A pleasant alternative to the Circumvesuviana train is the Campania Express (www.eavsrl.it), departing from Naples or Sorrento with stops at Herculaneum, Torre Annunziata, and Pompeii.

Golden Day: On your way in or out of Pompeii, take a stop at Torre Annunziata to visit Oplontis. In Pompeii, be sure to visit the Villa of Mysteries, where you’ll find a salon with fabulous frescos that tell the story of the bride Ariadne’s initiation into the cult of Dionysus. Move on to Sorrentino Vini (www.sorrentinoviniv.com), for a delightful and delicious lunch, dinner, or wine tasting in their vineyards at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. They can provide round-trip transportation from the sites.