Italian Intrigue
La Posta Vecchia is an intriguing witness to Italian history. A ‘voluptuous seaside resort’ favoured by Roman emperors, a Renaissance villa for the noble Orsini family and home to Jean Paul Getty a billionaire who filled it with Italian art treasures. Finally with typical Italian passion, Roberto Sciò who confesses to a love affair with beauty, found La Posta Vecchia irresistible and made it his family home.
This rich history has been captured by todays your host, daughter of Roberto and creative director and Italy’s contemporary tastemaker Marie-Louise Sciò. La Posta Vecchia balances the Baroque exuberance of a Fellini film with her renowned artful elegance. So guests live in refined style above Roman mosaics and ancient artefacts.
Jean Paul Getty’s collection
As you enter La Posta Vecchia you are presented with a glorious 17th Century tapestry, dignified marble busts of Roman emperors Flavio Vespasiano and Agrippa, and an antiquarian map by Giovanni Battista Piranesi one of the greatest printmakers in the world. This is a taste of the magnificent furnishings that adorn every wall and room of La Posta Vecchia, a collection made by Getty with his art historian Federico Zeri.
Guests are invited to live in elegant style amongst some five hundred treasures, just as the private collection was intended.
The Roman Museum
During Getty’s restoration of La Posta Vecchia, a Roman villa dating back to the 2nd century BC was revealed. First in the gardens, where the ruins remain open to nature and our guests, then beneath the Renaissance foundations.
The Archaeological Authority carried out excavation work, discovering ancient walls, colourful mosaics, African and Greek marble as well as an array of plate, amphorae and ampules. Today our guests have a private view of these valuable discoveries in La Posta Vecchia’s museum on the lower ground floor.