Its territory is crossed by the Metauro river.

One word “WOW”.

 About one hour inland from the Adriatic coast is the village of Sant’Angelo in Vado.

Sant’Angelo in Vado rises on the ruins of the ancient Tiphernum Mataurense denomination that derives from tipher or tifia, aquatic plant that develops in the marshy areas. The long war between Byzantines and Ostrogoths (6th century) also affected the territory of Tiphernum Mataurense which underwent total destruction. The Lombards rebuilt the new settlement on the ruins of the Roman city almost completely covered by alluvial soils, and dedicated it to the Archangel Michael, hence the name of Sant’Angelo. The second part of the name “in Vado” was added later and would be attributable to the fact that to reach the two sections of the city lying on the banks of the river, one had to “wade” the Metauro river.

Here in this Village that borders with Umbria in “Campo della Pieve” is one of the greatest discoveries of this past fifty years for Central Italy.

The Domus del Mito.

The Domus is roughly 1000 square meters and dates back to the end of the 1st century AD. The many rooms are represented by splendid figurative mosaics carpets of classic mythological figures. So it is called  “Domus del Mito” / Domus of Myths.

The story goes something like this.

On this piece of land that was being farmed for the past few centuries had a little problem. The crop did not grow well in a large area of this field and the farmer would occasionally find squared pieces of glass or stone, strange. So about fifty years ago the farmer started to dig and a few meters below the surface he found something odd, not wanting to ruin anything that could make him famous or bring in more money he took the matter to the professionals and they came in and began to excavate. The find was and still is breathtaking,

I must say I was extremely impressed with this tour and in awe of the beauty and details of the mosaic work lining each room and preserved so well after so many centuries under the soil.  All I could think was, How long did each room take to do? This Domus was a country house of a wealthy lord.

The piece of land where the Domus was discovered. The small roof is covering and protecting the excavation of the Domus. They are still uncovering more of the Domus so it is a work still in progress.

Unfortunately when I was able to visit it was already dark 5pm but it was still amazing.

I did not count on it getting dark so quickly, winter months 🤷🏽‍♀️ .

Wow, I felt I was in a special excavation site, wait a minute, I was!

Neptune with his wife Amphitrite on his special carriage “The Triumph Carriage”.

This mosaic work I found amazing, Looks like an amazing Kilim rug done in mosaic.

As you can see it is still a work in progress of discovery.

They said this room would have been the kitchen.

I thought it was amazing how the whole floor plan was laid out in mosaic like we would use tile or wood.

We happened to be here on the 9th of December the day after the immaculate conception of Christ.

The village of Sant’Angelo in Vado gather around this bonfire after mass.

This bonfire is lit to guide Mary & Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the birth of their son Jesus. 

I truly hope you enjoyed this post and left you wanting to know more about Le Marche Italy, if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or a like below.

Thank you again for stopping by.

Proclivity