Orto Botanico, Rome

Orto Botanico is Rome’s botanical garden, spread across the former grounds of Villa Corsini on the slopes of the Janiculum. As you walk through it, the garden unfolds from practical plant collections to woodland, glasshouses, and cultivated water. Its roots reach back to papal gardens where medicinal plants were grown.

In 1883, the collection came to this estate, and Pietro Romualdo Pirotta became its inaugural director. Follow the paths through the lower areas to find the garden of useful plants, the aromatic garden, palms, aquatic plants, succulent collections, and bamboo groves. Farther uphill, the Bosco romano preserves mature evergreen woodland.

Openings among its ancient holm oaks and plane trees provide views across the city. The historic Fuga staircase and a large wall niche remain from the garden’s earlier decoration. The garden now covers 12 hectares and contains more than 3000 plant species.

Look for the conifer collection, including an Australian araucaria, a giant American sequoia, and Chinese metasequoia. The Japanese garden was designed by architect Ken Nakajima. Water for irrigation and small streams arrives from the Acqua Paola aqueduct, linking this living collection to the old water system of the Janiculum.