Getty Villa Malibu

Gardens of the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades

"If they didn't have gardens they painted them on the walls, and if they had gardens they painted them on the walls anyway," says Michael DeHart, a horticulturist who's been supervisor for grounds and gardens at the J. Paul Getty Trust for the last 20 years and co-author of "Gardens and Plants of the Getty Villa" with Patrick Bowe.

To get a sense of the extent of their adoration, all any one has to do is stroll the Getty Villa's colonnades (called peristyles) and series of linked gardens. They feature neatly manicured hedges, Mediterranean-climate plants, pools and classical bronze sculptures, some of which are cast from molds of the originals excavated at the Villa dei Papiri -- the first century A.D. country house after which the museum and its gardens were modeled.

The southern Italian villa thought to belong to Julius Caesar's father-in-law was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

J. Paul Getty had a special interest in the art and culture of ancient Rome. The billionaire oil tycoon had visited Pompeii and Herculeaneum as well as the National Archaeological Museum in Naples as a teen.

Sixty years later, when he began planning a museum and gardens in Malibu to house his collection from ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria, he decided to base it on the excavated findings (handwritten scrolls, garden murals, magnificent fountains, carbonized plant materials) at Villa dei Papiri and other houses of the period. But Getty, who was living in England at the time of its construction, never lived to see its completion in 1974.

The museum was closed for renovation in 1997 and reopened in 2006.

Granted, Getty Villa's gardens are not exact replicas but re-created to look as authentic as possible.

"All the plant materials that you find here you would have found in the atypical country home back in the first century," says Anne Watson, supervisor of grounds department at the Getty Villa as she leads a tour through the main gardens, including the Outer Peristyle Garden.

This formal garden that would have been used for contemplation and art appreciation is framed by a roofed colonnade and features a 210-foot-long rectangular pool down the center. In Roman times, pools were used for swimming or raising fish for food. But here it's strictly for looks.

Say Hello to the New Getty Villa Malibu : Five Star Alliance

At long last, the new, fabulously improved Getty Villa Malibu opens on Saturday. After extensive renovations—this was the original home of the Getty Museum—the Villa will reopen as an educational center and museum dedicated to ancient Greek and Roman art and culture. How to score tix? The process for free admission is the same as the stupendous Getty Center that we know and love (I admit it: I've lured friends and family to the top of that hill just to walk the grounds and gape at the architecture, gardens and view. Forget the art, this is the best vista in all of LA!) Advance, timed tickets are required for each individual and can be obtained online or by calling (310) 440-7300. Parking is 7 dollars a car. (Take note: the Villa is closed on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The Getty Villa

The Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, Archaeology, Reception, and Digital Reconstruction

Guide to the Getty Villa

The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum, life and afterlife of a sculpture collection

Wayward son