Villa Trabia (Trabia Gardens in Palermo)

Not long ago I rediscovered a place that the locals of Palermo often forget about ,Villa Trabia.

It is a beautiful and big ensembles of gardens which can almost be called a park but has nothing to do with the conventional parks we all know and love, Villa Trabia is more than that, it's covered with tall palm trees and all other kinds of trees. In fact thanks to the care of the head gardener Vincent Ostinelli, trees such as locust trees, monkey-puzzle trees, oleanders, conifers, ficus magnolioides and oak can be found in the Villa, with a total in 1910 of 2,790 plant species (now currently around 150 species).

The building called the Casena in the district of Terre Rosse, is one of the many attractions of Villa Trabia, it was built in the eighteenth century by Ignatius Lucchesi Palli, prince of Campofranco and was then bought by Giuseppe Lanza Branciforte, prince of Trabia in 1814. The building is composed of a large central body on two levels, with two side wings and a small courtyard at the center of which lies the entrance.

 Also you might like to know that the Villa is divided into two parts, cut in two by a natural gradient (an old "pirrere" quarries of limestone) which now houses a road. The two sections of the Villa are connected by a beautiful bridge built in the Baroque style, there, it's possible to visit  some of the greenhouses and a large historic fountain built in the seventeenth century. 

But that isn't all, Villa Trabia holds a branch of Palermo's city council, a public library and a very useful free internet point. It is such a magical place, especially in the spring and the summer, that weddings ceremonies can take place there. I do advice to anyone to go and visit it, it's not far from the center in Via Salinas 3 and it's open from Monday to Friday from 9.30 am to 06.00 pm.    

 

Oratorio Santa Cita (Oratory Santa Cita)

I discovered this spectacular chapel thanks to the TV programme "Sicily Unpacked" shown on BBC4 in January.  I was completely astonished by the beautiful stucco sculptures all handmade by Giacomo Serpotta.

Born and died in Palermo (1652-1732), Serpotta was a true master in working with stucco.

Stucco was a difficult medium to work with as it was drying very fast not leaving much time for correcting mistakes.  One day Serpotta came up with the idea of adding marble dust to the stucco mix giving the final sculpture a more lustrous effect, when I saw the statues for the first time I thought they were made of marble that is how amazing the effect was.

Serpotta's best representation of his work can be found at the Oratorio Santa Cita . That is why on my last visit to Palermo in February I visited this chapel .

Tickets costs 5 euros per person, you can also visit the Oratorio San Domenico a couple of minutes walk away by using the same ticket where you can admire more art-work of Giacomo Serpotta.

Museo Internazionale delle Marionette (International Puppet Museum)

A great and original Museum .

All the puppets are handmade and very old, some of them are over 100 years old!
The collection comes from all over the world like Indonesia, Japan, China etc....

It is a great place to take your kids, especially on Tuesdays and Fridays as at 17.30
a puppet show takes place (October-June) which we missed as we went in the morning!

Tickets cost 5 euros per adult and 3 euros for children.  If you are in a group you can try to get a better price like we did!  In fact we almost paid half of the original price after a bit of bargaining.

Opening times: Monday- Saturday 9.00-13.00/ 14.30-18.30
Sunday 10.00-13.00

Address: Piazzetta Antonio Pasqualino 5 (near Porta Felice)

Just a little advice on finding the Museum as is a little tricky to find as we went passed it
without realising.
Once you get to Via Butera take the first left onto vicolo Niscemi, where you will find the Museum on your left.