The lungs of central Seville are the dreamy Parque de María Luisa, which is a delightful place to escape from the noise of the city, with duck ponds, snoozing sevillanos and paths snaking under the trees.
If you’d rather continue your cultural education than commune with the flowers, the park contains a couple of sites that’ll keep you smiling. Curving round the Plaza de España , with its fountains and mini-canals, is the most grandiose of the buildings built for the 1929 Exposición Iberoamericana, a brick-and-tile confection featuring Seville tilework at its gaudiest, with a map and historical scene for each Spanish province. You can hire row boats to ply the canals from only €5.
The Museo Arqueológico , at the southern end of the park, is an unexpected depository of Roman sculptures, mosaics and statues – much of it gathered from Itálica. There is also a room of gold jewellery from the mysterious Tartessos culture.
Opposite is the Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares , with a spotlight on the ceramic tiles produced in a factory founded by Englishman Charles Pickman, in the former monastery of Cartuja in 1840.
The park is a great place for children to run off some steam; they’ll enjoy feeding the doves in the plaza by the museum at the southern end of the park. Four-person quad bikes are available to rent for €12 per half-hour.
