A day at the Villa

Today I left work early to take a trip to the newly opened Getty Villa in Malibu. This place is booked through the summer so I was really excited when a co-worker and friend invited me to come along with her to see it today. Nestled in a small valley in Malibu is this gorgeous villa that was created to replicate a Roman country house, the Villa dei Papiri. The museum and art collection was housed in the main villa house, but on the property there were two other large buildings which were for restoration & conservation which were off limits to guests, which makes them all the more intriguing. They have students from a UCLA masters course that come to the villa as resident students to work in the conservation and restoration department....ooooh what I would give to be one of those students.
We ate lunch, went on a tour with a docent named Bill, who got a little winded on the stairs and kept breathing heavily into his microphone and then checked out the exhibits: Antiquity&Photography and Glassmaking in Antiquity.
The grounds and the building were just as fastinating and breathtaking. The large fountain at the top of this post would have been used not only for swimming, but as a place to raise fish for food and to keep the beloved family pets....eels were the pet of choice. The one item that I cannot seem to understand is the fountain where it appears the statue is riding a turkey. Cannot figure this one out....either a pillow or a turkey or as someone suggested an upside down pig. I did like the fact that the artist made sure that the statue is wearing flip flops. This statue was spotted in the herb garden where right before we left we helped to unburden one tree of one of it's heavy lemons. I think this was a good start to a great weekend. :)