La bella città - part 4

Day 5 - Saturday - The Botanical Gardens and the Gianicolo

A lateish start, with a coffee at the Antico Caffè Doria on the Via Andrea Doria -  a 16th Century Genovese Admiral, and also the name of a ship which sank off Nantucket in 1956 after a collision , and several other earlier ships.

Postcards . . .

We called in at the market for some lunch supplies, and food for tomorrow, since the market is closed on Sunday.

In the Mercato Trionfale

 We walked alongside the blond Tiber, seeking the Orto Botanico.

  and back along the river

That looks more promising . . . 

For a 30 acre garden, this was hard to find! It's between Via della Lungara and Colle de Gianicolo and is a Museum of the Department of Environmental Biology of the Sapienza University of Rome.  €4 each for ancients is a price well worth paying. Palm trees and a fountain with ducks and a gull . . .

enormous bamboos . 

From the highest areas there are glimpses of the city . 

There's a Japanese garden complete with fish . . .

 and waterfalls . . .

 a cactus house . . .

 a café . . 

and a children's play area, where lots of the local parents met to enjoy the late afternoon . . and more - this was a real discovery. 

After the gardens we made our way to the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill - not one of the seven, but the site of a temple to Janus) to the Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi - there was a welcome breeze after the hot day, and fantastic views over the city, to the surrounding hills.

 Traditional Italian songs

volare . . .cantare . . .

It grew darker so we made our way down passing several busts and statues.

Filippo Zamboni

I didn't think this sinister looking character was the inventor of the ice smoothing machines at Peterborough - turns out he was a 19th century poet  . He looks friendlier on the wikipedia page, but did have interests in spiritualism and hypnotism . . .

Back to base for a much appreciated meal!