Cinema Exhibitions Inspiration Live Events Photography

What I Loved Most from My Week in Los Angeles

2018 is almost done and I am writing from Belgium right now, where I am spending what remains of the year with my wife’s family. Around this time one usually goes for the best nine Instagram posts but I chose to sum up my recent trip to L.A. with a personal list of what I loved the most in the Los Angeles area, including a few tips of what to see and where to eat.

Inside Yayoi Kusama’s "Infinity Mirrored Room".
Inside Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Room”.
  1. Best museum: The Broad. Aside for the general experience of visiting the collection and enjoying the whole setting by architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, I finally had the chance to enter Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, a truly remarkable piece of art.
  2. Best exhibition: a double display of the work of American photographer Sally Mann, a joint effort by Gagosian gallery in Beverly Hills and the Getty Museum. Italian readers can have a look at my review for BoBos.it here.
  3. Best food: Mexican and Japanese, with equal merit. I basically survived out of a diet made of delicious tacos, burritos and tempura: I found a couple of great places where to eat very close to my Airbnb in the Sawtelle area: U-Zen and Monte Alban Restaurante. A special mention also goes to the burgers at the Grand Central Market and to the Rose Café in Venice, where I had the first and biggest breakfast burrito of my life.
  4. Best walk: from Santa Monica to Venice, on the beach. Having my feet in the cold water of the ocean still is one of my favourite memory from the trip. A special mention also goes to a late afternoon stroll from Rodeo Drive up to the Beverly Hills Hotel: a great chance to do some “mansion watching”, if you’re into it. 
  5. Best shopping area: although a bit crowded, it’s definitely Abbott Kinney Boulevard for me. It’s nice to browse the shops while sipping a chai tea latte from Intelligentsia Coffee. I ended up buying all my Christmas presents at the Burro flagship store.
  6. Best live experience: the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood. For a film buff like I am, this was a great chance to wander between backlots and soundstages in the studio headquarters in Burbank. If you read Italian, I wrote about it on Stardust.it here.
  7. Best view: the panorama from the Griffith Observatory, although the view from the Getty Center is equally breathtaking and getting to the Getty Villa clearly showed why that is one of the best scenic drives of the city. Finally, to be honest all the sunrises and sunsets were astounding. 
  8. Best way to move: it has to be Uber. It may be a bit pricy at times but it removes all the stress from driving yourself and get stuck in the traffic from hours – it also is quicker than any combination of public transport I could think of. For short trips everyone seems to enjoy the Bird electric scooter.

Beside checking the photo gallery below for a visual hint of why I loved L.A. so much, you can still browse my Stories on Instagram.

Have a great end of the year, you’ll hear from me again in 2019.