Botanical Garden of Rome — Attraction in Rome

We arrived mid-afternoon on a November Sunday, and was suprised to find the gardens so quiet. Students pay 4 and adults 5 for the day, while they offer free tickets for many others.

We got a paper map from the ticketmaster to follow. Although it was interesting to see some of the fauna (coming from a cold country) the time of year saw next to no plants in flower, save for a Chinese rose at the top of the rose garden.

The park has a good layout, although the steps suffer from overgrowth, forcing us on occasion to step down onto the mud.

It should be noted the rose gardens and cacti greenhouse had a number of prickly plants sprawling onto the path, at a child's head height.

Although we had a good time at the beautiful gardens, our main disappointment came with the butterfly exhibit. We were told by a man waiting j front that they had recently began imposing a head charge of 5 for entrants.

There was no indication or reason to belive there was a an additional charge at any stage prior to reaching the exhibit. Not even the signage on the hut gave us reason to belive we would be charged extra.

Although the amount is negligible, this annoyed us and roughly 10 other enough for us to turn around and find something else.

Other than that unpleasant surprise, the gardens are worth visiting as a quiet oasis in a busy city, and are...

Not very impressive if I’m being honest. I was here at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon and it wasn’t too busy. It cost me €4 to get in and it was a nice place but there are so many little parks in Rome I don’t think it’s worth the trek or the ticket price. I asked on my way in if there were fountains inside cz at that point I was gagging for a drink. I had real trouble finding one as there’s no signs and they weren’t marked on the maps. The park is set out on the side of a hill so it wasn’t easy trying to find the fountain in the first place so I was not happy when I finally found it to discover it didn’t work. I did eventually find another one that worked but it took me a good half an hour. There are a couple of nice old fashioned greenhouses and the cactus house had some nice and very big specimens. The monstera was probably the biggest I’ve ever seen but in the poorest condition with crispy brown leaves all over it. The variety of plants was not great. Granted, I didn’t cover the whole park because it was late in the day and I’d already done so much walking but from what I did see, I have more variety and certainly better cared for plants in my own garden. Thinking back now, I don’t think I saw any flowers at all, just plants. I went to villa borghese the following day and enjoyed those gardens more....

While I thoroughly enjoyed the visit to the Botanical garden, there are a couple of things you as a tourist should know before you go. Firstly, the back entrance (up the hill, near Fontana dell'Acqua Paola), to which the Google Maps led me, might be closed. It had a sign that read “Door open, tickets inside”, but the door was closed and the ticket office empty. In this case you have to go all the way around down the hill to the main entrance, then make your way up inside the gardens, which is quite an exercise. Secondly, if you would like to visit the Butterfly house, don’t go on Monday as it’s closed. Finally, while the gardens have some orangeries with cacti and tropical plants, an amazing bamboo ‘forest’ and a cute Japanese garden offering nice views of the city, there’s little new you can find if you go to botanical gardens often. If you don’t have much time, for a quiet time to get away from the crowds and enjoy the nature I would recommend something more central like Borghese Park. But if you do have time, this is definitely worth the 5 euro they charge...