Botanical Gardens

A late later start today allowed for breakfast on the terrace and some time to read in the sunshine. Out to walk to the Botanical Gardens, about 20 minutes away. Apple Maps took us to the wrong place and we had to backtrack to find the entrance. The gardens were lovely. This is a very dry climate so there were a lot of cactus and similar plants. The picture is of the pond which was labelled as an aquarium, and a little disappointing. Although the pond sliders (medium-sized, semiaquatic turtles) were interesting.  I think I saw a snake on the ground, which was quite interesting but I lost it in the grass. There were lots of tiny airborne things that bit. My legs itched for an hour after leaving. 

We walked out and then around Villa Giulia and on to the seafront. We wandered round to a modern seafood restaurant, Molo Sant’Erasmo, which was popular and only had indoor seating. I am not sure if it’s the done thing but we only ordered the pasta course. I had seafood fregola, which is a Sardinian pasta made as small balls of pasta dough. Mine was throughly delicious. Eleanor tried to order a Sicilian lemonade, which we thought would be easy to get, but we failed to be understood. 

Afterwards, we walked back through the town towards Teatro Massimo. We stopped for ice cream (or, in my case an orange granita, which was really cold and gave my sensitive teeth a tingle). We couldn’t get a tour of the theatre as some of the daily tours are suspended for rehearsals for their upcoming production Don Giovanni.

We walked back via Famila supermarket, which had a bigger selection than Lidl, to buy things for dinner tonight. The late afternoon was spent on the terrace. Rob cooked a delicious pasta which we ate with a view of the Palermo back streets.