Along that stretch of the Strada Regia delle Calabrie which, owing to the splendour of the buildings that lined it, was renamed the “Golden Mile”, not far from the famous Villa Campolieto, stands Villa Petti Ruggiero.

The location of this historic residence, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius in a hilly area relatively far from the sea, places it within the category of so-called “rustic residences”, once primarily associated with agricultural activities and lacking the aspirations to elegance that characterised the villas along the coastal belt.

The villa was built at the behest of Baron Petti around the mid-18th century and remained in the possession of the family until 1863, when it passed to the Ruggiero family. The villa’s present floor plan does not correspond precisely to its original layout, as can be seen from the map by the Duke of Noja, with the building volumes having developed asymmetrically in relation to the longitudinal axis.

Along the road, the villa features a modest-sized façade whose original proportions have been altered by the addition of an extra storey. The façade is dominated by a handsome round-arched portal in piperno stone and white marble, flanked by rusticated pilasters with Ionic capitals and surmounted by a curvilinear balcony. The façade is decorated with stucco pediments framing the openings of the raised ground floor and the piano nobile.

The floor plan follows one of the most common layouts: the deep building facing the road extends into two short wings which, connected by an exedra, define the space of the elliptical courtyard.

The vestibule, aligned with the opening of the exedra, is articulated as a sequence of three vaulted spaces covered by cross vaults. These expand in the central section to form two exedrae, where marble seats follow the curved profile of the lateral sections.

The courtyard elevation is undoubtedly the most distinctive part of the building. Articulated by a Serliana motif supporting a terrace, it displays a pronounced Rococo character. The lower level features a composition of smooth pilasters, repeated on the two short lateral wings that frame the three openings of the portico overlooking the courtyard.

On the upper-storey façade, set back to make room for the terrace, balconies open out beneath stucco cartouches and scrollwork. At the centre is a niche housing a bust of Saint Januarius, depicted in his customary gesture of stopping the lava flowing from the volcano.

The terrace, whose balustrade alternates between bulbous wrought-iron railings and piperno stone pedestals supporting sculpted busts, following a recurring motif in 18th-century Neapolitan culture, constitutes the richest decorative feature of the entire complex. From here, one can admire the shaded avenue of the garden, closed at the far end by a niche.