juliewp

As others have posted, this is a most unusual and beautiful place, and a museum only in the sense that it houses/protects priceless art. It is otherworldly, and sometimes in the oddest way - there is a sense of something here that is difficult to explain and not entirely comfortable - in fact, the place can be unsettling. It is a curious combination of light and dark, and much more of the latter than some of the posts on this site might convey. It has a subtle, but very real, sense of the genuinely gothic, where there is a touch of shadow (and sometimes much more than a touch) behind everything and a feeling that can, at times, border on the sinister. Even a perfect spring day in the courtyard is never exactly what it seems - it is more like a mild fever-dream of a spring day. I am surprised that the place has not become a stock setting for any number of novels and films - Hitchcock should have LIVED here (and Ms. Gardner herself, a genuinely mysterious, goddess blonde, would surely have been a fitting muse).

In all, I obviously recommend the place most highly, but was simply surprised at how few posts commented on its unique energy.