Villa Borghese

The Villa Borghese is Rome's version of Central Park—only with more museums

* Giardini Villa Borghese (Villa Borghese Gardens)
In the northeast quadrant of the historic center, accessible from Piazza del Popolo and the top of Via Veneto
tel. +39-06-6710-9312 or +39-06-6710-9315

No official site for the park, but here's a great, kid-centric blog entry from Jan 2010: lolamamma.wordpress.com

Galleria Borghese: www.galleriaborghese.it
Villa Giulia: www.beniculturali.it
Puppet theater: www.sancarlino.it
Zoo: www.bioparco.it

Viator.com tours
• Skip the Line: Borghese Gallery and Gardens Walking Tour
• Private Tour: Borghese Gallery and Baroque Rome Art History Walking Tour
• Rome by Night Coach Tour

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The Tempietto of Asclepio on the Laghetto in Rome's Villa Borghese Gardens park
The Tempietto of Asclepio in Villa Borghese. (Photo by Jean-Christophe Benoist)Rome's greatest central green lung is the Villa Borghese park, 226 acres of gardens, statue- and bust-lined paths, fountains, and artificial lakes.

It;s a pretty big park, so I like to get around by renting a bike. I usually hit the octagonal kiosk at the south end of Viale Medici in the Pincio area, though here are other rental locations in the park on Viale dell'Orolorgio, Viale JW Goethe, Piazzale M. Cervantes, and Viale dell'Uccelleria (that last near the Galleria Borghese).

Another favorite activity: rent a paddleboat on the small lake with its weensy 19th-century Greek-style temple on a mini-island.

The museums

This being Rome, the park also contains a trio of top museums, including the Villa Giulia (miles and miles of Etruscan vases and other antiquities), and the *** Galleria Borghese, among my favorite little museums in the world, positively crammed with Caravaggios and Berninis.

The Pincio and the puppet shows

The terraces up to Villa Borghese's Pinco Gardens above Piazza del Popolo.
The terraces up to Villa Borghese's Pincio Gardens above Piazza del Popolo. (Photo by Sailko)The Villa Borghese is sub-divided into several different park areas. Make sure you make time for the terraced 19th-century Pincio Gardens rising above Piazza del Popolo.

It offers great views, a nifty old merry-go-round, and an old fashioned Teatro del Burattino (puppet theater) on Viale dei Bambini Villa Borghese, with shows Saturdays and Sundays, and occasionally other days (closed Jan and Aug; tel. +39-06-6992-2117; www.sancarlino.it).

The Bioparco zoo

Giraffes at the Bioparco Zoo in Rome's Villa Borghese Park.
Giraffes at the Bioparco. (Photo by Alinti)Kids overwhelmed by too many churches and museum might enjoy a break at the the newly revamped Bioparco (zoo; www.bioparco.it. It is one of the oldest zoos in Europe (founded 1911), but in the mid-1990s was retooled from a zoo of cages to a biological garden of natural habitat enclosures which primarily house endangered species and injured animals that are being rehabilitated to return to the wild.

It has become a teaching zoo, with placards at each endangered or threatened animal's enclosure that show via pictograms what threat the animal faces in the wild (climate changes, pollution, habitat destruction, hunting, etc.); the bears, wolves, lions, and apes are especially popular. (I always get a charge out of suddenly seeing wolves pacing past me when I tool by the outer fence on a rented bicycle.)

It's in the northeast corner of the park; take Tram 19 to "Bioparco." It's open daily 9:30am to 5pm (to 4pm Oct 25–Mar 26), staying open until 6pm on weekends Apr 2–Sep 25.

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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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