The 2018 excavations on the site of San Giovanni, situated at the eastern end of the coastal plain of the same name, aimed to continue the investigation of the rural villa begun in 2012.
The Roman villa is thought to have belonged to the latifundium of the gens Valeria. The building had two floors and a wine cellar with six large dolia in which the wine was fermented. The villa also had a room for the storage of cider in amphorae.

It was immediately clear that the villa’s structures were in a very good state of preservation: it was built in the late 2nd century B.C., mainly in unbaked clay, and destroyed in the 1st century A.D. by a fire that by “baking” the structures guaranteed their survival.

The villa had two storeys and, the removal of the collapse of the upper floor revealed high-quality wall paintings with 1st Style Pompeian frescoes and moulded stucco.
The previous excavations showed that the building situated in area 1had a single phase. However, this year’s excavations suggest there was a first construction phase, datable to between the late 2nd century and the early 1st century B.C. This was probably followed by interventions to close or alter rooms, which are difficult to date as they were pisé structures and the alterations took place very soon after the original construction.

There is little doubt that the villa was built around the year 100 B.C. (based on the study of the ceramics and inscriptions found on tiles and the opus doliare). The suggested date for its destruction, following a disastrous fire, is sometime within the 1st century A.D., given the lack of 2nd century A.D. materials.

The last two excavation campaigns clearly showed the existence of a subsequent occupation phase, only concealed by a few remains found during previous seasons, attested by the presence of a burial on the villa’s collapse, by robbing activities and the presence of small hearths and forges. This occupation probably dates to the late antique period when, similar phenomena are documented in the contexts of the villa della Linguella and the villa delle Grotte on Elba.

This building was erected some generations before the large villa delle Grotte (situated on the adjacent promontory and excavated in the 1960s). Of Augustan date and situated on the promontory above, it came to represent the pars rustica, where wine and foodstuffs were stored.
The construction of the building at S. Giovanni also represents the end of the metallurgical phase in the bay of Portoferraio, yet to be identified below the late Republican levels. The waste products, which the builders must have found in abundance on the site, were in fact used as make-ups for the coccio pesto and opus signinum floors.