Wandering Villa Giulia I took a short stroll through Villa Giulia, one of Palermo’s ‘pleasure gardens’, on a spring day this year and saw beds of lavender; pots of colourful flowers; tall, lean palms; long avenues; porticoes; a majestic statue of a lion looking to the Tyrrhenian Sea; time worn stone urns; busts headless; and views to Monte Pellegrino in the distance, beyond the port of Palermo.

  A blond orange and the little nespola (loquat) I enjoyed the two fruits in the Madonie mountains this spring. the sweet blond orange of Scillato (arancia bionda) and the little nespola (loquat).

The blond orange is a sweet and juicy orange grown at the bottom of the Madonie Mountains near the tiny village of Scillato, about 20 minutes down the mountain road from Polizzi.