Villa Montalvo

Since I live near a lot of nice places, I usually like to use google maps to “explore” and find interesting spots to visit based on photos. I found Villa Montalvo, or otherwise known as the Montalvo Arts Center, this way browsing google maps.

The land is beautiful and offers a nice hike, so I made a day trip out of it with a friend. First we grabbed breakfast at a cafe nearby, and then we drove over. I had read up on the Villa’s history, so I knew roughly it used to be owned by a politician (James Duval Phelan), who donated it to be a public park and for the arts after his death when I visited. His record is questionable to put it lightly (you can read about it on their site), but it’s hard to argue he did a good thing in his bequest. His rather abhorrent views did not take hold.

The garden was nice, but pretty sparse when I visited near the end of July. We hiked around the garden but didn’t go too near the house, since there was a wedding party. It was a nice day out, and overall I enjoyed it, but I think Filoli has spoiled me for what I expect in gardens.

I had gotten new sun hats before this trip, so my friend and I had semi-matching cute straw hats with ribbons. We took some fun photos of each other in front of a statue of Adam and Eve, but unfortunately I forgot to take any of just the statue with my camera1 to show here.

Footnotes
  1. I took some with my phone though. Since I feel pretty ambivalent about showing my face in public photos, I won’t share the photos of me in front of the statue here. ↩︎

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