There are always lots of fascinating and beautiful things to see in a big city. I love old homes and buildings. So much more attention to detail in every aspect from woodwork to parquet flooring and tiles. The East Coast has the best of these but Los Angeles has something relatively new that was built to echo something far older than even the United States itself.
The Getty Villa in Malibu was built in the 1970s to house J. Paul Getty’s art collection of antiquities from Ancient Greece and Rome. It was designed to replicate in as many details as possible a villa from Italy. If you’re interested, here is a video of the museum’s history.
For those that can’t travel to Europe, it’s a wonderful opportunity to be transported back to a time long forgotten and buried deep beneath ash and mud. There are tours to educate, or you can just wander about on your own imagining how a day in the life of an ancient Roman one-percenter might have been.
It’s also a great place to try out your hand at photography. Gorgeous vistas immediately catch the eye but then amble about through the garden, and the details of the place catch one’s attention. I love really looking at things and seeing what others might have walked past without noticing.
I love the symmetry of the layout.
A lovely palm explosion
A covered walkway to grab some shade
An amusing fountain spout
I get more interested in even finer details. A woman sitting directly beneath these didn’t even see them until I pointed them out.
Grapes hung from a trellis canopy
Crazy looking lily pads dot a pond
Water trickles from a fountain creature’s open mouth
This is how I see the world. I’m far more interested in the minute than in the grandiose. For me, God is in the details.
A familiar pattern hidden in tile mosaic
Beauty captured in marble
A naughty little image at the bottom of a wine cup
After a few hours of roaming, I started to feel a bit like this little guy.
All tuckered out
But there was so much more to see, so I will return and look some more.
