In the Villa del Casale the peristyle plays a significant role in connecting the various rooms; it has a planimetric dimension of around 30 by 20 metres, and is quadrangular in shape. 
The
colonnaded portico
that surrounds it connects, to the north, the area of private and service apartments.
The ascending route, in the southern area, gives access through a passageway to the rooms connected to the
triclinium
and the
xystus
; 
along this path on the portico there is the
Diæta di Orfeo
, a reception room perhaps intended for music, 
followed by an antechamber connected to the palestrite, a room named after the mosaic that decorates it.
On the south side, the portico is in direct relation to the
vestibule
;
in this part there are two small spaces, the first connected to the small private latrine, reserved for the inhabitants of the Domus, the second allows access to the
thermal baths
through a passageway that, 
with the help of some steps, solves the difference in height with the underlying
biapsidal hall
. Of note on the north side is another more refined room, whose entrance, like the Diæta di Orfeo, is highlighted by two columns.
This room is the Diæta della Piccola Caccia, a dining room dedicated to the Dominus and his family.
On the eastern side the width of the portico is reduced, due to the presence of three steep staircases that 
with a few steps solve the difference in height to reach the great
ambulatory
, named the Great Hunt
after the mosaic decorations represented here, a corridor around 60 metres long that concludes the private apartments and gives access to the great
basilica
.
In the centre of the peristyle there is a large
pool
of mixed typology between a fountain and a natatio, i.e. a swimming pool; 
the floor of the atrium, as well as the external edges of the fountain, was covered with marble slabs, as found during recent restorations. As was customary, the whole room was embellished with plants, decorated with
topiary art
, resting places and statues.
