Last year on my visit to Los Angeles, I spent much of an entire day at the Getty Center, perched high on a ridge overlooking the city below and housing a glorious collection of art and surrounded by beautiful gardens. I shared my impressions in my blog and vowed that if I had the chance, I would visit the second site of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. That opportunity presented itself last month when my husband and I had several hours free after attending Global Traveler‘s awards celebration at The Peninsula Beverly Hills. We stayed at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica, and after a delicious breakfast at the hotel’s Coast restaurant, we made the short (five-mile) drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to the Villa.

Blessed with a glorious warm and sunny day, we found the Villa fairly quiet and uncrowded (with the exception of a few busloads of field-tripping school kids). Aside from the $15 parking fee, admittance is free (as with the Getty Center), and one’s first view of the site approaching from the south parking lot is from above. The museum grounds are built into a narrow canyon, and they were designed to be experienced as if entering an archaeological site, with visitors descending down through layers of history. There is a large open-air Greek-style amphitheater and a café, gift shop and auditorium, but the main museum building is a two-story edifice modeled after the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, a traditional Roman country house, complete with

peristyles, gardens, fountains and pools of water.

The Villa houses Getty’s collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan art, displayed in galleries organized by theme (gods and goddesses, the Trojan War, Dionysus, etc.) rather than historical era or geographic area. I enjoyed this layout and the way one could move from indoor to outdoor spaces easily. Just as with the Getty Center, the attention to detail here was impressive, and to be surrounded by so much beauty was a true balm to the soul.

I would encourage any visitor to the Los Angeles area to seek out either or both of the Getty sites for an enjoyable interlude in stunning settings.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor