The Villa in Desenzano is, nowadays, the most important testimony, in Northern Italy, to the grand and sumptuous ancient villas. The building, situated just north of the Gallic way, enjoyed an excellent environment and landscape along the southern shores of Lake Garda. Nowadays anyone who wants to have an idea of the composition of the villa must use their imagination to make the large and distinct blocks of the building, dating from the IV century B.C., emerge from the ruins, but without considering, in this first approach, all those other elements which date back to earlier dwellings, and that can be glimpsed here and there.

So, what can be drawn from these numerous separate ruins is an impression of a complex building, widely spread and characterised by three main areas, a first sector for extravagant stately functions, a second mainly residential area and a third which is for the most part thermal. At the entrance to the villa there is also a small museum which, in three rooms, exhibits finds from numerous archaeological digs: amongst these there are the remains of some very interesting statues and pictures, as well as a mill for pressing grapes or olives.

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