This thesis considers the ways in which elite Roman villas along the Bay of Naples were experienced by visitors who had nearsighted vision. I propose that treating visual ability as a variable, rather than a constant, in art historical and archaeological research allows for a more complete and nuanced understanding of the intentions and experiential qualities of these elite residences. To test the potential of this approach, I apply it to a case study: the experiences of nearsighted elite visitors to Villa A at Oplontis, a particularly grand and intricate villa that once overlooked the Bay of Naples. I argue that the architectural and decorative design of spaces that defined a visitor’s experience—namely the north and south entrances—created a sense of aesthetic wonder as well as a strong feeling of confusion. This co-existence of wonder and confusion is not paradoxical. Instead, I argue that it allowed the villa, itself an extension of its owner, to generate highly curated and immersive experiences for visitors. The mechanisms that produced these feelings did not necessitate that visitors have normative visual abilities. Instead, it is likely that nearsightedness brought with it certain advantages. By considering how a nearsighted viewer may have experienced Villa A, new understandings of domestic spatial experiences and the visitor-owner relationship are revealed, and assumptions that non-normative bodies were intrinsically disadvantaged are challenged.