Parks and Gardens

When looking at a map of the center of Rome, there is not a lot of green to be seen. Villa Borghese, Rome’s most famous park, just north of the Spagna and Flaminio (Piazza del Popolo) metro stops, and that’s more or less it.

Still, there are several big parks only just outside of the center of Rome and also in the center itself there are a number of (smaller) parks and gardens, where you can have rest from the hustle and bustle of your sight-seeing duties.

The most important and interesting parks in Rome are:

1. Villa Borghese: The biggest park in the center and home to a number of museums, including the famous Borghese Gallery. The zoo of Rome lies in the northern part of this park.
2. Villa Doria Pamphili: On the slopes of the Janiculum Hill, bigger and less crowded than Villa Borghese.
3. Botanical Gardens: On the northern slope of the Janiculum hill, at the back of the Palazzo Corsini. Closed in the winter months.
4. Villa Celimontana: A big park, where, unlike in Villa Borghese, trees are allowed to grow as they please. There is a small museum, there is an obelisk, there are some ruins, and in the month of June a jazz festival is usually held here. Just south of the Circus Maximus.
5. Villa Torlonia: Not too many trees for a park, but beautiful thanks to a number of tiny museums. Mussolini used to have his residence in this villa along the Via Nomentana.