Our final day in Sicily began slowly with a leisurely breakfast on our shady balcony. As our British Airways return flight to London wasn’t due to depart until 20.30 we had arranged a late check out, enabling us to have access to our apartment until late afternoon.
We started the day with a stroll along to the cathedral and admired its beautiful facade for one last time. Taking a walk around the side of the majestic church there was even more intricate stonework for us enjoy. Our route took us to the Capo district which is home to another of Palermo’s large outdoor markets. The Capo market was similar in size to the Ballero market located near to our apartment, stretching out from the square along neighbouring roads.
After wandering amongst the stalls and trying to figure out what all the fish were, we continued on as far as the National Museum of Sicily which had a delightful courtyard inside its entrance way. It was then time for a coffee in a nearby square. Although I’ve been enjoying my daily morning cappuccino’s, I do wish they could be served in larger sized cups like at home.
Feeling rested after a morning in the hot Sicilian sunshine we decided that we couldn’t leave Palermo without one final visit to the waterfront and marina with its stunning cliff side backdrop. Our seaside walk took us through some gardens which offered a little shade whilst sitting on a bench a few minutes to study our phone map.
We soon realised that we were quite close to the Villa Giulia Gardens which offer free entry. As we reached the gardens, all the gates seemed to be padlocked but eventually after continuing around to the other side of the park we found the main entrance which was open,
The gardens are well maintained and attractively laid out, particularly in the central section which has four matching pavilions. Bougainvillea was growing over the arches creating a blaze of red and purple blossom.
An ice cream kiosk was a welcome find and we wandered slowly back inland to our apartment trying to finish our cones before they melted in the heat. A late lunch out on on terrace followed comprising of a variety leftovers that needed eating up before going home and we accompanied these with salad.
It was then time to finish packing our things together and after doing so, we wheeled our luggage along to the station for a train to Punts Raisa, Tickets cost only €5.90 for the 35km journey but if you plan to make this journey, do allow plenty of time as the train stops repeatedly and takes 65 minutes to reach its terminus beneath Palermo airport.
Fortunately there were no other passengers waiting to check in at the BA desk which was a bonus and passing through security was also a reasonably fast process. The only bad news was that our flight was delayed by 40 minutes so we had longer than expected to amuse ourselves in the terminal.
Once on board the aircraft we found it was only 75% full and we were again fortunate to have a spare seat next to us, enabling us to spread out a little. The flight passed quickly and managed to make up for its late departure coming into the gate at Heathrow’s Terminal 3 exactly on time. After collecting our luggage from the baggage carousel we then opened our cases to retrieve our coats as it felt decidedly chilly in London compared to the temperatures we had experienced during our two weeks in Sicily.
This brings to an end my series of posts on our visit to southern Italy. Thank you for taking an interest in this trip and for your ever welcome thoughts which hopefully might inspire some of you to visit beautiful Sicily for yourselves!
If you have enjoyed reading this series of posts you may also be interested in the following:
I would like to thank Visit Sicily for arranging our visit. As always all views and opinions are entirely my own.
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