La Posta Vecchia sits at the point where the Italian coast north-west of Rome is at its most quietly dramatic: a 17th-century villa built directly on the Tyrrhenian Sea, facing a medieval coastal castle, on a stretch of shoreline that was resort territory for ancient Rome’s most powerful citizens more than two thousand years ago. The layers here go deeper than at most Italian venues, and the combination — Papal posting station, oil magnate’s residence, archaeological museum, and five-star hotel — produces a property that is genuinely unlike anything else within reach of Rome.
The hotel is part of the Pellicano Hotels group and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. With between 19 and 21 rooms and suites, it is a property scaled for intimate, exclusive events rather than large celebrations. For a wedding party that takes over the entire hotel, the result is a rare thing: a sea-front property in the Roman countryside that functions entirely as a private estate for the duration of your stay.
The villa was built in 1640 for the Orsini family as a guest lodge and service annex for the nearby Palo Castle — housing stables, carriages, and accommodation for visitors to the castle. Its position on the via Aurelia, the ancient coastal road connecting Rome to the north, gave it a second institutional life: over the following centuries it served as a customs office and postal relay station for the Papal States. It was one of the post houses where horses were changed and correspondence transferred — a function embedded in the property’s name. La Posta Vecchia means, literally, “the old post house.” By the mid-20th century the building had been standing largely abandoned for over forty years.
In 1960, J. Paul Getty purchased the property from Prince Ladislao Odescalchi — the same Odescalchi family whose 14th-century castle still stands on the promontory directly opposite the villa, visible from the sea-facing terraces. Getty was 68 years old at the time of purchase, already the wealthiest man in the world by most measures, and already collecting European art and antiquities on a vast scale. What drew him to the abandoned villa on this specific stretch of coast was partly the archaeology beneath it — during the restoration work that followed, workers discovered that the villa had been built on the foundations of ancient Roman structures associated with the settlement of Alsium.
Getty’s restoration of La Posta Vecchia took five years and was carried out in collaboration with the Italian art historian Federico Zeri — one of the great connoisseurs of Italian painting of the 20th century, who later became a trustee of the Getty Museum in Malibu. Together they assembled a collection of approximately 500 artworks and antiques for the villa: 17th-century tapestries, Renaissance furniture, Persian rugs, Roman marble busts, and maps and engravings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The villa became a private residence of exceptional quality — a collectors’ house at the edge of the sea, furnished with the same rigour that Getty applied to his Malibu collection.
Getty lived at La Posta Vecchia intermittently through the 1960s and into the early 1970s. The dolce vita decades brought to its rooms visitors including Sophia Loren and Jackie Kennedy, among others of comparable social weight. In July 1973, Getty’s grandson John Paul Getty III was kidnapped in Rome by ‘Ndrangheta organised crime. The trauma of that episode — and the prolonged negotiations that followed — effectively ended Getty’s Italian life. He permanently vacated La Posta Vecchia around 1975, retreating to Sutton Place, his English estate, where he died on 6 June 1976, aged 83.
After Getty’s death, Roberto Sciò purchased the property in 1980, acquiring the villa and the entire art collection intact. Sciò converted it into a hotel, which opened in 1990. His daughter Marie-Louise Sciò, Creative Director and CEO of the Pellicano Hotels group, subsequently shaped the property’s contemporary identity. The hotel underwent a significant renovation, completed in 2023 — undertaken in compliance with the requirements of Italy’s Soprintendenza dei Beni Culturali, which oversees the property’s architectural and archaeological heritage. The Getty art collection, the Piranesi prints, and the Pompeian-style frescoes remain in place throughout the hotel.
During Getty’s restoration in the early 1960s, the excavations beneath the villa and in the gardens exposed the remains of two ancient Roman structures, with occupation evidence spanning from the 1st century BC to approximately the 4th century AD. The site is associated with Alsium — an ancient Etruscan settlement converted into a Roman colonia maritima established in 247 BC, located on the Via Aurelia approximately 35 kilometres from Rome.
Alsium was the resort coast of the Roman Republic and Empire. Pompey the Great had a villa in the area; Julius Caesar is documented to have landed at Alsium returning from his African campaigns. The settlement was destroyed in the 6th century AD during the Gothic Wars by Totila’s Ostrogoths and was not rebuilt. For more than 1,400 years the ruins lay beneath the coastline soil, until Getty’s builders broke through the floors.
The finds included polychrome mosaic floors, African and Greek marble statuary, amphora fragments, ancient walls, and the remains of a staircase leading to the sea. The Italian Soprintendenza conducted formal excavation work at the site. Some of the Roman antiquities were later moved to the Getty Villa in Malibu; the remainder were kept on-site and are now displayed in a private museum in the basement of the villa — organised by volunteers from the GATC (Gruppo Archeologico del Territorio Cerite). The museum is accessible to hotel guests and to the public.
This is the detail that distinguishes La Posta Vecchia from every other sea-front property near Rome: guests sleep above an active archaeological site, dine where Roman senators once had their summer houses, and can walk into a small museum beneath the building to look at the evidence. The property does not simply refer to ancient Rome — it is partially built from it.
La Posta Vecchia operates under the Pellicano Hotels group — which also includes Hotel Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole and Mezzatorre in Ischia — and holds membership in The Leading Hotels of the World. It is a five-star property with between 19 and 21 rooms and suites, depending on configuration. Named categories include Tower Rooms, Tower Suites, and individually named suites — the Colonna Suite, Olive Suite, Red Suite, Castello Suite, Medici Suite, and the Getty Suite, formerly known as the Getty Studio, which was J. Paul Getty’s personal study during his residency. The hotel is open approximately from April through early November each year.
The property’s facilities include a heated indoor swimming pool, a private beach club, a spa and beauty suite (by appointment), a tennis court, and a fitness room. The Bar Piranesi — named for the Piranesi engravings that line its walls — serves as the main bar and gathering point. The restaurant Da Aurelio provides the dining operation. The facade of the villa is now a distinctive dusty pink, refreshed in the 2023 renovation while maintaining the proportions and character of the 17th-century structure.
La Posta Vecchia’s scale — fewer than 25 rooms — means that wedding events here work through an exclusive hire model: the entire hotel is taken for a minimum of two nights, and the wedding party has sole use of every space on the property. There are no other hotel guests, no competing events, no shared spaces. The staff serve exclusively your group for the duration of the stay.
The event spaces distribute across the property in a way that allows the wedding day to move through different settings:
For events exceeding the outdoor terrace capacity, a marquee structure in the gardens can accommodate up to approximately 200 guests. The combination of indoor and outdoor spaces makes the property workable in most weather conditions.
La Posta Vecchia is located in the municipality of Ladispoli (Province of Rome). Whether a legal civil ceremony can be officiated on-site — requiring the presence of a civil registrar from the Comune di Ladispoli — depends on the municipality’s current authorisation of the property as an external ceremony location. This should be confirmed directly with the venue’s events team and with the Comune di Ladispoli before planning, as regulations and authorised venue lists are subject to change. A common arrangement for properties of this type is for the legal registration to be completed at the municipal registry offices, with a ceremonial civil reading forming part of the celebration at the hotel. Current requirements should always be verified directly.
La Posta Vecchia is at Palo Laziale, 00055 Ladispoli (RM), on the Tyrrhenian coast approximately 42–44 kilometres north-west of Rome. The most direct route from Rome is the A12 Roma–Civitavecchia motorway, exiting at Cerveteri-Ladispoli and following signs toward Palo Laziale — a drive of approximately 50–70 minutes depending on traffic.
From Fiumicino (Leonardo da Vinci) International Airport, the hotel is approximately 29–34 kilometres, 25–30 minutes by car — one of the shortest transfer distances of any luxury Italian wedding venue from an international hub. This is a significant practical advantage: guests flying in from London, New York, or Paris land and are at a sea-front hotel in under 40 minutes, with no motorway chaos.
For guests arriving by train, the Cerveteri-Ladispoli station on the FL5 Roma–Civitavecchia commuter line is approximately 10 minutes’ drive from the hotel. Frequent trains connect to Roma Termini and Roma Ostiense. The hotel can arrange transfers for wedding party groups.
Nearby: the Etruscan Necropolis of Cerveteri — a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 2004, shared with Tarquinia) — is approximately 10–15 kilometres away, offering an archaeological excursion option for guests spending multiple days in the area. The Odescalchi Castle at Palo, the medieval coastal fortress visible directly from the hotel’s terraces and now owned by the Odescalchi family, is equally close.
The name means “the old post house.” The villa was built in 1640 for the Orsini family as a guest lodge for nearby Palo Castle, and in subsequent centuries it served as a customs office and postal relay station for the Papal States — one of the stops along the Via Aurelia where horses were changed and correspondence transferred. After standing largely abandoned for over forty years, it was purchased by J. Paul Getty in 1960 and restored as a private residence. It became a hotel in 1990 under the Sciò family, who acquired the property and the entire Getty art collection intact in 1980.
During Getty’s restoration in the early 1960s, excavations beneath the villa exposed remains of ancient Roman structures dating to the 1st century BC, associated with the site of Alsium — a Roman colonia maritima established in 247 BC on the Via Aurelia. Finds included polychrome mosaic floors, African and Greek marble statuary, amphora fragments, and ancient walls. The Italian Soprintendenza conducted formal excavations; the materials that remained on-site are displayed in a museum in the villa’s cellar, organised by the GATC archaeological group and accessible to hotel guests. The museum can also be used as a private dining space for small groups, creating a setting unlike any other in the region.
Getty purchased the villa in 1960 from Prince Ladislao Odescalchi. Working with Italian art historian Federico Zeri, he undertook a five-year restoration and assembled a collection of approximately 500 artworks and antiques — tapestries, Renaissance furniture, Persian rugs, Roman marble busts, and Piranesi engravings. He used the villa as a private residence through the 1960s and early 1970s, permanently vacating around 1975 in the aftermath of the kidnapping of his grandson John Paul Getty III in Rome in 1973. Getty died on 6 June 1976 at Sutton Place, England. Roberto Sciò purchased the property in 1980 with the entire collection intact, and the hotel opened in 1990. The Getty Suite — Getty’s former study — remains as one of the hotel’s principal named spaces.
The sea-facing terrazza seats up to approximately 150–160 guests for an outdoor dinner reception. With a marquee structure in the gardens, the maximum capacity reaches approximately 200 guests. For indoor dining, the restaurant and connected rooms accommodate up to approximately 100 guests. The hotel’s exclusive hire model — typically a minimum of two nights for the full property — means the wedding party has sole use of all 19–21 rooms and suites plus all outdoor and indoor spaces.
La Posta Vecchia is located at Palo Laziale, in the municipality of Ladispoli, approximately 42–44 kilometres north-west of Rome city centre — about 50–70 minutes by car via the A12 motorway (exit Cerveteri-Ladispoli). From Fiumicino (Leonardo da Vinci) International Airport, the hotel is approximately 29–34 kilometres, roughly 25–30 minutes by car — making it one of the shortest international airport transfers of any luxury coastal venue in Italy. The Cerveteri-Ladispoli train station, approximately 10 minutes’ drive from the hotel, connects to Rome Termini by commuter rail.
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