When planning a visit to the winding streets of the Trastevere neighborhood, earmark time to meander these ancient gardens. Locally known as Orto Botanico, this land was first cultivated by Pope Nicholas III in the late 13th century, and is now owned by the Sapienza University of Rome. With more than 7,000 species of flowers from around the world, ... Morethere’s color and beauty at every turn, especially when the roses are in bloom in April (the gardens are closed in August and during winter). This 29-acre garden along the Janiculum hill, which is open Tuesday–Saturday and charges an entrance fee, is a great place to relax in the quiet Japanese garden.

Address:
24 Largo Cristina di Svezia
Rome
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The Garden of Orange Trees (Giardino degli Aranci) by the Santa Sabina church pays homage to the namesake Spanish tree. The first orange tree planted in Italy, by Saint Domenic in the 13th century, continues to grow in a separate courtyard (tour the church to see the original tree through a porthole in the nave). This small space is enclosed by the... More walls of the 10th-century Savilli Castle; but what the park lacks in size, it makes up for in exceptional views from its terrace: see the Tiber River, the dome of St Peter’s Cathedral, and Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Admission is free.

Address:
37 Via Di Santa Sabina, Parco Savello-Piazza Pietro d’Illaria
Rome
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Since 1909, Villa Aurelia has been the property of the American Academy in Rome. In 2002, the property reopened with much fanfare. Positioned on the crest of Janiculum Hill (the highest place in all of Rome), the villa’s heralded gardens afford magnificent views of Rome, as well as outdoor spaces for private events. Visitors can wander down a... More stone walk lined with lavender, rosemary, and convolvulus, through arbors and formal gardens to a water-lily fountain. Trellis covered with climbing roses, rock gardens, and magnolia groves are also highlights.

Address:
1 Largo di Porta San Pancrazio
Rome
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Here, tucked under the arid Lepini Hills, the ruins of a medieval town (razed by civil war in 1382) were gradually transformed over the course of the 20th century by the aristocratic, now died-out Caetani family into what some consider the most beautiful garden on earth. There was never a formal plan. Three generations of Caetani wives helped Ninfa... More grow back over the skeleton of the abandoned town, its streets and buildings (tower, town hall, several churches) providing the framework for the garden. It still has a feeling of being inhabited not by ghosts but by the flora and fauna that have taken over the place, creating a dreamlike world of color, fragrance, and serenity. You walk along a cypress avenue (once the main street), then follow grass paths (originally cobblestoned alleys) bordered with lavender and rosemary hedges that meander between the ruins. The crumbling stonework supports a profusion of climbing roses, clematis, honeysuckle, and jasmine. Vacant gateways and windows frame views of wildflower meadows, flowering shrubs, rare magnolias, pomegranate groves, and a cluster of giant timber bamboos.

Address:
68 Fondazione Roffredo, Latina
Ninfa
Italy

Phone:
39-07-7363-2231Less

It’s been said that Janiculum Hill served as the center of the cult of the god Janus. Because of the hill’s advantageous position, the cult’s priests would use it as a lookout point for signs from the gods. After a famous battle in 1849 between Giuseppe Garibaldi and the French, the hill was transformed into a park. Locals frequen... Moretly visit for an urban respite, bring their children to the puppet theater, or view the churches, piazzas, and monuments. Italians refer to the park as Gianicolo and can point tourists toward the nearby site where a scene from La Dolce Vita was filmed.

Address:
Via Garibaldi, Janiculum Hill
Rome
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More than 1,000 roses bloom late each spring at Rome’s Municipal Rose Garden on the eastern side of the Aventine Hill. The sloping garden is divided into two sections separated by Via di Valle Murcia. The upper area is home to the garden’s permanent roses, while the lower section contains roses participating in the annual, international... More Premio Roma competition. Due to the limited nature of the blooming season, the garden is only open from early May to mid or late June. But visitors can come daily, free of charge, and guided tours are available upon request (call to make an appointment).

Address:
Via di Valle Murcia
Rome
Italy

Phone:
39-06-574-6810Less

More sculpture park than garden, Bomarzo’s Sacro Bosco occupies a lush area on the grounds of the Villa Orsini. A web of looping trails leads though open glades, past rocky outcrops, and down steep ravines inhabited by giant, often grotesque statues of gods, mythical beasts, and other marvels. At every turn there’s an encounter with som... Moree unexpected and eccentric work of art. An elephant with a tower on its back; a huge turtle bearing the statue of a goddess; a leaning stone fun house. Some of the moss-covered figures are badly worn and their symbolism long lost, but there’s no mistaking the ogre whose gaping cave of a mouth (big enough to walk into without stooping) represents the entrance to the underworld. If there’s something melancholy about nature having reclaimed much of the “Parco dei Monstri,” as it’s known locally, it fits the spirit of the place and the story of its creator. In 1552, Prince Vicino Orsini started work on a Villa of Wonders for his beloved wife, who died tragically young, which caused the project to be shelved; it was later completed as a monument to her memory.

Address:
Villa Orsini
Bomarzo
Italy

Phone:
39-07-6192-4029Less

This 17th century villa stakes claim in the largest landscaped public park in Rome. Situated just outside Porta San Pancrazio, it was known as Bel Respiro, or “beautiful breath,” for its panoramic views of the city. The villa contained a casino, which housed a collection of Roman sculptures and antiquities such as vases, sarcophagi, and... More inscriptions. Today the propery is surrounded by lush gardens, clipped hedges, fountains, waterfalls, and statues, making it a favorite spot for running or a leisurely stroll. The large park also includes arches of an ancient aqueduct.

Address:
183 Via Aurelia Antica
Rome
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The only way to see what gardening authority Penelope Hobhouse called “one of the great masterpieces of Italian garden art” is by first taking the official tour of the Villa Farnese, a formidable pentagonal fortress that sits above the town looking out toward Rome. Troop through one magnificent empty salon after another (including a map... More-of-the-world room painted around 1570). Wander uphill through mature woods of ilex, chestnut, and pine to the Casino del Piacere (House of Pleasure), a perfectly proportioned lodge built by Vignola. The final approach to the casino is by way of a dramatic arrangement of steps and fountains leading to a terraced garden of stone pillars, 28 male and female busts on tall pedestals that seem to have sprung from the ground along with the sentinel cypresses. The grandeur may be a little daunting, but Caprarola illustrates the importance the late-Renaissance builders and their masters set on the relationship between villa, garden (with all its sculptural forms), and the surrounding landscape.

Address:
Caprarola
Italy

Phone:
39-07-6164-6052Less

At the Villa Lante, built for Cardinal Gambara in the 1560’s on a hillside above the medieval town of Bagnaia and considered by many to be the finest Renaissance garden in Italy, the twin pavilions, or palazzine, play such a minor part in architect Giacomo Vignola’s overall design they might as well be garden ornaments. Villa Lante is a... Morell about order and proportion, if not restraint. Its main terraces are subdivided by paths and box hedges into geometrical patterns; they’re linked by steps and a central stream that falls from a grotto at the top of the garden through a sequence of magnificent fountains and cascades (adorned with shrimp tails, dolphins, and river gods) to the great water parterre that overhangs the ocher-roofed town below. As you look down on the garden from above, the beauty of these symmetrical arrangements becomes apparent—the sparkling play of sunlight on water; the inviting cool of ilex-shaded bowers—adding to the harmonious effect of the whole. Flowers, rarely a key feature of Italian gardens, would be a distraction.

Address:
Via Jacopo Barozzi
Bagnaia
Italy

Phone:
39-07-6128-8008Less

Take a “time out” from the hustle and bustle of Rome and wander the gravel paths of public park Villa Sciarra, named after the adjacent 17th-century Barberini family villa. Built on the site of Caesar Gardens, between the Trastevere and Gianicolo neighborhoods, this botanical gem offers topiaries, statues of Roman mythological creatures... More, fountains depicting playful fauns, and an aviary. Some areas are original to the Caesar Gardens (the holy copse bordered with statues), while other pieces were moved to the grounds, such as numerous fountains and sculptures from an 18th-century Lombard villa near Milan.

Address:
Via Dandolo
Rome
Italy

Phone:
39-06-488-991Less