The Getty Villa

A couple of weekends ago I went to the recently reopened Getty Villa in Malibu.
The villa, restored to its original grandeur, partially recreates the famous Roman Villa dei Papiri from Herculaneum (preserved during the volcanic eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD). Closed since 1997 for serious renovations and major expansion ($275 million), the Getty Villa's renewed structure and expanded campus, designed by Boston's Machado & Silvetti Associates, include a conservation center, library for scholarly research and a 450-seat outdoor amphitheater, based on a Roman model. More than 1200 objects from the Getty's exhaustive collection of some 44,000 artworks are displayed in the villa's 23 galleries.
What Machado and Silvetti have done is to make of the villa itself an object of art to be contemplated and appreciated.

The numbers of visitors is limited so you may have to wait a little for your visit but the upside is it relaxes the whole experience. Parking, viewing the grounds and the artwork, eating etc. is a real pleasure. Take a look at the photos and you'll realize what I'm talking about, no big crowds anywhere and I was there from 2pm to 5pm.

The Getty Villa is located at: 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA. Admission is free but parking costs $7.00 (cash only). Free timed tickets are available online at www.getty.edu or by calling (310) 440-7300.

::Click to see my photo gallery::