Piazza Marina e Giardino Garibaldi

The story

Piazza Marina was originally an inlet of the sea that was filled in, and for centuries it was the city’s great public space towards the harbour: tournaments and festivities were held here and, in the days of the Inquisition, public executions, with the Steri closing one side of the square.

At the centre, the Giardino Garibaldi was designed by Giovan Battista Filippo Basile in 1863, with wrought-iron railings and exotic trees. The most famous is the Ficus macrophylla planted at the time, whose aerial roots have become trunks and which is now one of the largest trees in Europe.

Around the square stand noble palaces, the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and the Garraffo fountain.

Why it is worth it

The ficus is a creature more than a tree: roots dropping from the branches and rooting in the ground, a trunk that has become a forest. Walk under it and feel the air change. Then circle the square, with the Steri, the palaces and the café tables, and you understand why Palermitans come here in the evening.