This week my friend Alice came from the Bay Area to go on a couple of auditions. She stayed overnight at my place and I suggested we go for a walk this morning. She mentioned that on her next visit she wanted to go to a museum. She thought maybe the Getty. The nerd I am I told her it is built with 16,000 tons of travertine and listed the characteristics of travertine, where it’s quarried, how it’s made, the different finishes, how to care for it and durability. Her reaction was so cute, she was so impressed and excited to learn about travertine. She wanted to know if it is durable and I told her the Colosseum is made from it, so yes.

The first time I went to the Getty was about 10 years ago, before I worked in the stone and tile world and I didn’t even notice the stone. My focus was on the Baroque and Rococo era paintings, etc. Then I went back in 2015 and I was amazed. I thought wow this is a lot of travertine! How did I overlook this? While travertine is lovely for many applications, I am a marble girl-venetino, calacatta, carrara and arabescato-in that order. I am very excited that I will be going to Carrara, Italy this September to tour the marble quarries where they excavate these wonderful stones. I am very excited!