Families at Villa Borghese

Villa Borghese: discovering a green paradise

Let's discover one of the largest and most evocative green areas of Rome, the most famous city park, an oasis of relaxation to spend a day dedicated to culture and entertainment, away from the chaos of the city.

Located north of the historic center, Villa Borghese is a treasure chest with many natural beauties - English and Italian gardens, villas, fountains, ponds, groves and statues. The park offers a lot of cultural, entertaining and educational activities - museums, theatres and attractions - for the joy of kids and adults.

Thanks to its considerable extension - it is the fourth-largest public park in Rome, with approximately 80 hectares - you can easily reconcile your needs with those of your children. To make your exploration even more enjoyable, you can rent bicycles or scooters to move from stage to stage through its wide tree-lined avenues.

A day of games, boats, cinema and puppets

Near Piazza di Siena, the amazing Casina di Raffaello awaits you. It is a playroom for children and teenagers aged 3 to 14. Here, they can join its educational workshops, participate in its many activities, including animated readings, book presentations, temporary exhibitions, summer camps, training courses, or play freely in the wide equipped outdoor area. In the meantime, you can have an excellent coffee in the lounge bar of the nearby Casa del Cinema.

Not far away is the delightful Garden of the lake, where you can rent a little boat and enjoy nature. Surrounded by the numerous exotic plants of this little corner of paradise, you can admire the Temple dedicated to Aesculapius, in the centre of the water, the Sundial and the Fountain of the Satyrs Family, along the banks.

If you love the big screen and theatre, there is something for everyone: you can take your kids to the Cinema dei Piccoli, which offers a program entirely dedicated to them or choose the Teatro San Carlino puppet show, where Pulcinella and his friends always give life to new stories and adventures.

A journey of discovery: wonders between art, science and nature

Explore the splendid Galleria Borghese, a magnificent 16th-century patrician residence. Today, it houses one of the most extraordinary art collections in the world with masterpieces by Bernini, Bronzino, Canova, Caravaggio, Raffaello, Perugino, Lorenzo Lotto, Antonello da Messina, Cranach, and Annibale Carracci. Paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations of the main artistic currents from the 19th century to the present day await you at La Galleria Nazionale, a splendid palace of neoclassical inspiration and Liberty style. You can also visit the Etru - National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, one of the most representative museum of Etruscan art in the world, housed in the beautiful Villa Giulia e Villa Poniatowski.

Villa Borghese also hosts two of the 8 Civic Museums with free admission: the home-studio of Pietro Canonica, the small and valuable museum dedicated to the internationally famous sculptor, music lover, and composer; the Carlo Bilotti Museum, currently housing paintings, sculptures and drawings donated by the renowned collector, including a nucleus of paintings and sculptures by Giorgio de Chirico, Manzù, and the master of Pop Art ,Andy Warhol.

If your children are animal lovers, we suggest a walk inside the Bioparco. In the Zoological Garden of Rome, you can get to know over 200 animal species from all over the world, including Sumatran tigers, lions, bears, orangutans, Komodo dragons, chimpanzees, ring-tailed lemurs. It also hosts a reptile house, which recreates a tropical open-air environment between waterfalls and trees, and a rainforest. The Bioparco has a rich botanical collection, which extends for 17 hectares inside Villa Borghese and is composed of uncommon plant species of great historical importance and numerous rare exotic plants.

And that’s not all! There is a lot more to see! You can pay a visit to the nearby Civic Museum of Zoology to discover its collection of about 5 million preserved specimens, from shells of a few millimeters to the 16-meter whale.