Already investigated in 1989-90 and 1992, the area was systematically explored by the Post-graduate School of Archaeology, Padova University in 2001. A vast monumental complex was identified, which to the south comprised a large open space, probably a garden, surrounded by a portico with a large exedra placed on the main axis. To the north was a building characterised by a long façade with portico and numerous groups of rooms, linked by covered walkways. It is difficult to define the function of this complex: it may be suggested that it was a rich private villa and perhaps the structures should be placed in relationship to the imposing baths found by the Veneto Superintendency below the Hotel Terme Neroniane. The finds collected and the stylistic analysis of the floors give an Augustan-Tiberian date. Two areas were opened, one at the northern end of the area under investigation (Trench P), the other more centrally placed, in correspondence with the sector already partially examined by the 1989-90 and 1992 excavations (Trench S). Trench P revealed a group of very refined and rich residential rooms, as attested by the floor typology, architectural materials and plaster fragments collected in the layers of collapse-abandonment. All that remains of the walls are the robber trenches made after the abandonment of the building, whilst the floors are well preserved. The hub of the complex seems to be a vast hall (circa 120m2 ) situated on the same axis as the southern exedra and characterised by an elegant inlayed pavement of small black and white marble slabs arranged in two decorative motifs: one of triangles, hexagons and rhombi, the other of squares and rectangles. Other rooms of varying sizes opened off the side of this hall in a symmetrical arrangement, with pavements in black and white mosaic or inlayed coloured marble from the Mediterranean basin. In Trench S other rooms were uncovered, some of which datable to between the end of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd century A.D., attesting that the complex underwent reconstruction. That the two largest rooms were heated is shown by the small pilasters that must have supported the floor. Many fragments of sculpture, antefixes that decorated the top of the roof, stucco cornices, and plaster painted with pigments that came from Egypt were found.

In 2006 the excavation area was extended in the zone linking the previously opened trenches (Trench SP) and in the north-east zone of the previous trenches themselves (Trench F). Three new trenches were opened (Trench M, Trench east corners, Trench west side) which made it possible to check: - the nature of interventions following the abandonment-demolition of the Roman building, all relative to late antique, early and late medieval occupation (a settlement with a small craft industry). These activities were concentrated in the north and central areas of the field, in the quadrant delimited by Trenches P and SP to the north, to the east by Trench S, to the west by the edge of the property, whilst to the south they did not seem to be present in the eastern sector. Here the Roman buildings were robbed; - the preservation at foundation level of the Roman structures of the central building, constituted by a portico its north side having niches, the south side constituted by what was probably an enclosing portico, ending to the south with an exedra with a central tower and with a large garden with structural elements (fountains?, flowerbeds?, pathways?).

The 2007 campaign on the Roman building in via Neroniana shed light on the peculiar characteristics of the foundations, built above the imposing dumps of waterproof material, and better defined the plan. The dating of its construction to the beginning of the 1st century A.D. was confirmed by the find of a deposit of amphorae and other pottery that had at first been interpreted as a foundation trench. Deep trial trenches were dug which revealed a sporadic occupation of the area dating to the middle-late Bronze Age. In correspondence with a number of residential rooms belonging to the Roman building, traces emerged of a hut, with a brick floored hearth, built on top of robbed out Roman floors. The suggested preliminary date places the hut in the late antique/early medieval period. Two burials found just north of the hut were of the same date. A trench opened in correspondence with the centre of one of the porticoed courtyards in the Roman building revealed the remains of at least one building of full medieval date, an integral part of an organized settlement founded after the area underwent widespread land reclamation. (cfr. Paola Zanovello, Marianna Bressan, www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2009-145.pdf).

The 2008 excavation campaign on the site in via Neroniana at Montegrotto Terme (PD) concentrated on three areas. The trench “ex SAV”, near the Venice-Bologna railway line, revealed the remains of a Roman building, already excavated between 1989-1992. The foundations of the walls were of squared blocks of Euganean trachyte and formed a series of rooms, delimited to the east by the external wall of the complex, with buttresses at regular intervals. The eastern part of a long portico with alternating semicircular and rectangular niches was also visible. This separated the northern residential part of the building from the southern part, which was presumably a garden with enclosure. North of the portico was a large square room, to the west a narrow corridor, some rooms behind the portico and a room with a characteristic T shaped plan. The floor make-up in this room was similar to that in the square room. Further examinations were undertaken in order to evaluate the building technique used in the Roman building, the preceding stratigraphy and the relationship between the structures and the channelling identified to the east of the buildings, beyond the eastern perimeter of the complex. Trench H, already opened in 2007, is situated near the north-western limit of the property. Here it was possible to gain an understanding of the impact made on the Roman building by the reuse of materials in the late antique period. The rooms in the Roman building were robbed of the pavements, but not of the walls, exploited as the perimeters of huts paved with the beaten surfaces recovered from below the Roman floors. Three kilns and a multi-phase hearth were linked to the late antique settlement. At the same time part of the area was reused as a necropolis. The identification and emptying of the robber trenches relating to the walls, to be dated sometime after the decline of the late antique village with necropolis and before the creation of the medieval village, also provided more information about the plan of the Roman building. Beside the two rooms situated west of the large room with opus sectile floor, there were another two, with mosaics, and a corridor. Further west patches of a brick pavement came to light, together with a stone paving, whose characteristics and relationship with the rest of the Roman building will be the object of future excavations. The third area excavated, trench G, investigated a rectangular building with a staircase divided into three rooms. The structures cut 9th century levels and were associated with floors datable to between the 10th-11th century. Inside the eastern most room was a large hearth built on a slab of Euganean trachyte. It had at least four phases of use. Outside the building a long pit of uncertain use was found in association with a number of post holes. North of the main building the southern part of a second structure was also uncovered. This had trachyte foundations, a beaten floor surface and a small hearth. It was on the same alignment and had the same chronology (10th-11th century) as the first building.

This season’s excavations concentrated on the northern sector of the site that was partially excavated during earlier campaigns, with the aim of continuing the investigation of the structural and decorative characteristics of the emerging Roman building. The investigation concentrated on the northern residential nucleus of the structure, which was fully excavated, cleaned, and documented with an ortho-photographic mosaic. Consolidation of the surviving patches of mosaic was completed. More specifically aimed interventions were undertaken in order to integrate the interpretations of preceding excavations. The removal of the layers of rubble, abandonment, and fill from the robber trenches revealed the plan of the Roman building. With regard to the floor levels, the mortar make-up for the mosaics in rooms 11 and 13 were preserved almost intact, as was the make-up of orange-red clay in room 14. A number of patches of mosaic were preserved in rooms 2, 3, 8, and 9. The monochrome white mosaics of sloping and straight contrasting stripes in rooms 6 and 10, and the black mosaic with white stripe and central panel with “chicken’s foot” motif in room 4 were almost intact. The make-ups for the _opus sectile_ floors in rooms 1 and 5 were also well-preserved.

This season’s excavations concentrated on trenches A, B, and H in the northern sector of the site. Given that the 2010 campaign as well as providing new evidence for the structural interpretation, was also the last opportunity for photography prior to the creation of permanent roofing over the Roman building, the structure was cleaned and aerial photographs were taken of this part of the site. In the residential part of the Roman building, the complete plan of the forepart projecting into the central peristyle was uncovered. Symmetrical to the eastern structure, it had corner plinths supporting the vertical elements of the walls. North of the forepart, the entire sequence of make-ups and large patches of a monochrome white mosaic with contrasting stripes were preserved in room 22. To the west of this room was a large rectangular room, bordered to the east by a deep foundation of trachyte stone. The westernmost part of the corridor 17 north developed between this room and the forepart. In the south-western corner of trench A, the trachyte foundations delimiting corridor 17 west were uncovered, thus showing that the western end of the peristyle was closed and clarifying a number of questions regarding the symmetry of the entire building. The southern end of corridor 17 north revealed the presence of a brick half-column _in situ_, abutting a trachyte monolith, facing south and inside the first part of corridor 17 west. In trench B, following the removal of the spoil that had accumulated during previous years and of the upper levels, as in Trench A the robber trenches for the Roman structures were exposed below modern levelling. The orange-red clays showed no evidence of reuse. As regards the plan of the villa, the excavation revealed the presence of corridor 18, counterpart of corridor 17 north. Traces of a brick/tile channel on a north-east/south-west alignment were exposed below the floor in corridor 18. Room 8 was completely excavated and room 12 was investigated as far as the trench edge. The layout of the structures and characteristics of the mosaic (white with oblique bands contrasting with straight bands) supports the hypothesis of its symmetry with room 6. During this campaign, work was resumed on the medieval building in the central sector of the site. The stratigraphic deposit and relationships between the walls were re-examined. This confirmed that the 10th-11th century stratigraphy rested on a level of land reclamation functional to the construction of a building in a mixed technique with masonry walls and a stone footing. Between the 11th and 12th centuries, a new, larger masonry-built structure was put up. The site was finally abandoned in the late medieval period.

The investigation concentrated on the northern part of the Roman building now under permanent cover. Three robber trenches relating to walls in rooms 1, 3, 4, and 5 were emptied, as this had not been done during the previous campaigns. Although it is thought that robbing involved all the surviving structures of the villa at more or less the same moment, a different US number was given to each trench based on its alignment. This was done in order to recover the topographic data for the occupation evidence, in particular the floors and wall facings, and thus obtain the necessary elements for a reconstruction of the villa’s interiors. The most significant find came from the emptying of the eastern trench inside room 1, a trachyte plinth for a column, made up of a quadrangular base 0.80 x 0.80 m. The base and lower end of the shaft were 0.36 m in diameter. This find confirmed the previous suggestion that the trenches inside room 1 represent the robbing of the foundations of a row of columns parallel to the north/south walls. The integral plinth was repositioned in correspondence with the eastern row of columns, from which it came. Brick/tile plinths were found on the bottom of the north-south trenches, functioning as deep foundation structures supporting a linear foundation wall, presumably in brick/tile and for this reason completely robbed out. The system of plinths in the trachyte foundations uncovered to the west was a symmetrical repetition of what was documented to the east and confirmed the hypothesis that the linear trachyte foundations associated with brick/tile plinths represents a reinforcement of the foundations to support the substantial walls of room 1.

The 2012 campaign extended the excavation area in the northernmost part of the site, outside of the roofed-in part of the villa and worked on the post-Roman phases whose existence were confirmed in earlier seasons (Trench H, 2007-2009). The interventions were made necessary by work for the preparation of the archaeological area for opening to the public (March 2013). Following the removal of the upper layers, the excavations exposed the two phases dating to the full medieval period, one of which, the deterioration of the structures, had not been previously documented. Excavations in correspondence with forepart 19 identified a number of situations linked to the villa’s construction phases. In fact, the foundations of the north wall of room 6 and of the wall that closed forepart 19 were uncovered. A small brick/tile channel, preserved intact, cut both walls.