Roman Villa of Pliny "in Tuscis"

[8] The villa was first built in the 3rd-2nd century BC Etruscan era from which traces of a large rectangular area (11 x 21 m) paved with cobblestones of fairly accurate workmanship have been found.

The villa was owned and rebuilt in 2 BC to 15 AD by Marcus Granius Grenellus, a member of the Granii family (a senatorial elite), as shown by terracotta stamps.

In Umbria they prospered in the first triumvirate, and particularly in Spello since an ancestor, M. Granius (probably his father), was an important municipal duumvir quinquennalis there.

During this phase (late 1st or early 2nd century AD), the villa was greatly extended with the help of the architect Mustius[13] firstly with an impressive façade doubling the length of the villa, faced with a portico featuring symmetrical projecting avant-corps at its corners and a small temple in the centre.

Pliny lovingly described the villa in great detail:[15] .. a broad and proportionately long portico, consisting of several rooms, particularly a court of antique fashion.

You descend, from the terrace, by an easy slope adorned with the figures of animals in box, facing each other, to a lawn overspread with the soft, I had almost said the liquid, Acanthus: this is surrounded by a walk enclosed with evergreens, shaped into a variety of forms.

Beyond it is the gestatio, laid out in the form of a circus running round the multiform box-hedge and the dwarf-trees, which are cut quite close.

The Museo Pliniano in the Villa Magherini Graziano,[17] at Celalba di San Giustino, opened in December 2013.