Naples, Italy CNN —A three-year project to build a children’s playground and recreation area south of the Italian city of Naples has unearthed the ruins of a 2000-year-old clifftop beach house. Experts believe it could have once been the opulent residence of Pliny the Elder, the legendary author, naturalist, and commander of the Roman navy fleet stationed there. Courtesy Comune Di BacoliAs well as acting as a lookout point, Pliny’s beach villa would have also likely been used for leisure. On the beach neighboring the newly-discovered villa walls, a large brick ruin had been dubbed the “talking wall” by local residents as, in their view, it proved the one-time existence of a large residence. “The ruins of the Roman villa will be cleaned and cordoned-off with wooden fences,” said Bacoli’s mayor Josi Gerardo Della Ragione.

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Persons: Italy CNN —, Pliny the Elder, Bacoli, Simona Formola, “, ”, Formola, tufa, Josi Gerardo Della Ragione Organizations: Italy CNN, Roman, CNN, ” Locations: Naples, Italy, Italian, Ischia, Procida, Bacoli, Misenum, Roman, Vesuvius