The Botanic Garden, or Orto Botanico, in Rome's Trastevere district, offers a beautiful escape from the bustle of the city’s traffic-packed streets.
A beautiful Roman site with no need to wait in line
The Orto Botanico, its tranquil green spaces flecked with parakeets – a recent invasive species – provides an appealing alternative for which you don’t need to stand in line in the Eternal City. From Piazza Trilussa in Trastevere, along Via della Lungara and into Via Corsini, the cobblestones stop at the Botanic Garden’s ticket-office, while higher up on the Janiculum Hill Garibaldi’s statue can be seen peeping over the treeline.
Rome meets the world on the slopes of the Janiculum Hill
Well-marked gravel pathways lead past antique and headless busts, with an astonishing variety of plants and trees from the four corners of the world. Ranging from the Janiculum’s oak forest to an Orangery and to carnivorous plants, there is also the Corsini Cactus House with flowers in shades of brilliant mauves, reds and yellows.
A Water Garden and medicinal plants
Past the water-garden, at close quarters one can observe the Wollemia nobilis or dinosaur tree which was deemed extinct up to 1944. Another once seemingly defunct tree on show is China’s Metasequioa glyptostroboides: 5,000 years from its so-called extinction date. There is also a culinary Garden of the Senses, as well as the Garden of Simples with plants that were used by mediaeval monks to prepare medicines. In the Tropical Greenhouse humidity is a fixed 80% but of course attracts visitors at all times of the year, despite its stifling atmosphere.
