Blasphemy or Bliss? The Re-created Villa dei Papyri

Nook of Malibu:  While wandering the ancient ruins in Campania, I always wondered -- if archeologists use creative license in re-building the ruins, why not just re-create all of Pompeii as they think it might have been?  Turns out, my musings were already envisioned by multi-millionaire J. Paul Getty more than sixty years ago.  His dream was to re-create the Villa dei Papiri.  Although the project began long after his death and construction took place from 1997 until 2006, the ancient building exists today.

The Villa itself is not an exact replica, but a mish-mash of architecture, wall frescoes, and marble floors that mimic the style of villas at Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabia, and Oplontis.

As a young man, Getty took a Grand Tour of Europe while he was a student at Oxford.  That launched a passion for collecting antiquities and his many pieces are displayed in light-flooded rooms of the villa.  The collection is eclectic, spanning more than a thousand years with pieces from Greece, Rome, Turkey, Crete, Egypt, and more.  Curators put the exhibition together not based on dates or country, but by themes, including Women in Antiquity, where I re-connected with the notorious Agrippina The Younger:

And Men in Antiquity, where I ran into her incestuous brother, the Emperor Caligula:

Their lives were not far off from playboy J. Paul Getty III, one of the wealthiest men in America who had five wives and likely lived a lifestyle as debaucherous as the Romans.  In his villa today, nothing of his licentious behavior can be seen: only high-brow relics remain, including an outdoor odeon that advertises ancient Greek theater productions and a colorful mosaic fountain:

 whose bright colors pet and fondle the senses with... ducks:

Getting There:  The Getty Villa is at 17985 Pacific Coast Hwy.

Stay Tune for my California Hippie Trail and my guidebook called The Espresso Break.  They will both come out on January 1, 2012!