Inspections were undertaken in several buildings being restructured in the historic centre of the town and during the laying of a network of public utilities. The inspections revealed the substantial and well preserved remains of a large Roman building, below a series of early medieval houses built after its destruction. Walls and mosaics discovered in 1959 and 1960 are part of this building and date to the earliest phase of the construction (late Republican-Augustan period). Recent investigations have brought to light structures which, on the whole, belong to the subsequent phase (3rd to 5th century A.D.). These was composed of apsidal rooms with a heating system, the well preserved remains of a stoke-hole, a probable bath with hypocaust and pool that are linked, by two steps, to the north side of a portico, part of the eastern side of which has also been uncovered. The building underwent numerous alterations and transformations, which are not always easy to interpret due to the fact that the excavated areas are not contiguous. In the 4th century phase an imposing wall, over 3m wide, was built on the east and north sides of the villa, thus closing it off towards the lakeside. The defensive function of this wall continued after the destruction of the villa in the 5th century. It formed part of the town wall, when restored and with the addition corner towers, of the settlement which grew up on the site between the beginning and the mid 6th century, over the collapsed remains of the villa. Excavations have revealed that this first settlement was followed by a succession of Lombard occupations, which show a series of alterations to the dwellings that is composed of simple, beaten-earth floors, hearths and