By MAURA J. CASEY, The New York Times

ON a recent family trip to Italy, I had arranged for our final night to be spent at La Posta Vecchia, a quiet, seaside hotel in Ladispoli, about 25 miles north of Rome. The circa-1640 villa, once owned by J. Paul Getty, is now a 19-room inn furnished with Getty's antique furniture and tapestries. With the open windows bringing in cooling breezes, little could be heard but the sound of the wind and waves. Yet the hotel also gave us an additional, unexpected gift: a fascinating glimpse into daily life as it was lived 2,000 years ago.

La Posta Vecchia, it turns out, is one of a handful of hotels that not only offer proximity to old ruins or historical excavations but also own them.